Two Colorado doubles pairs are still rolling at the ITA Mountain Region Championships, and Heidi Crncan kept her singles run alive with a comeback win Thursday in Provo.
The Buffaloes had a strong third day at the regional, with Pia Rebec and Louise Ternstroem plus Ema Bubalo and Lera Alexin both winning twice to move into the doubles quarterfinals. Crncan, the ninth seed, also survived a tough three-setter and now gets top seed Sara Akid of Utah in the Round of 16.
“I thought we did some real positive things today in doubles,” CU Head Coach Anthony Pham said. “When we found ourselves in tight moments we were decisive and did a great job playing to our strengths.”
Assistant coach Erick Garcia pointed to Crncan’s fight and the team’s need to stay sharp from first point to last.
“Heidi is as resilient as they come,” Garcia said. “She is a great competitor.
For the entire team I think that we are playing at a high level, but we must maintain it for the entire match. We need to work on staying focused all the time as the margins are very small at this type of event.
Mental mistakes are costly.”
In doubles, Rebec and Ternstroem got the day started by blanking Nevada’s Petra Janigova and Nikol Janickovicova 8-0, then followed with an 8-3 win over Denver’s Paulina Jurkowska and Sofia Mavor in the Round of 16.
Bubalo and Alexin also handled business, knocking off Iowa State’s Emmy Richards and Veronika Zarovna 8-3 before edging BYU’s Sephi Sheng and Allegra van der Walt 8-5 to reach the quarterfinals.
Colorado’s Willow Gretsch and Crncan were stopped in the Round of 32 by New Mexico’s Vianca and Vivica Corley, 8-6.
Crncan delivered the Buffs’ best singles result of the day after dropping the first set against Air Force’s Stephanie Marcheret. She fought back to take the second set 6-4, then owned the third 6-0 to close it out.
Bubalo and Ternstroem were both eliminated in singles Round of 32 play, while Yukiko Ikedo and Alexin each fell in extra matches.
Colorado’s next tests come in both draws Friday. Bubalo and Alexin will meet Wyoming’s Silver Bijlsma and Anastasiia Kochelaevskaia in the doubles quarterfinals, while Rebec and Ternstroem face BYU’s Cara Korhonen and Sue Yan Tan. Crncan’s reward for Thursday’s comeback is a matchup with Akid.
“We look forward to making some adjustments tomorrow and continuing to control what we can control,” Pham said.
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