Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Day Five
Ormeno Ruiz Wins Mountain Region Championship
October 18, 2015 | Tennis
LAS VEGAS -- University of Colorado junior Nuria Ormeno Ruiz won the USTA/ITA Mountain Region Championship Sunday becoming the first player in CU history to win the regional singles title.
Ormeno Ruiz had a great comeback and defeated Denver's Julia O'Loughlin by a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The first two sets were conducted outside and then rain forced the players inside to for the final set.
“I'm still shaking from this match,” Ormeno Ruiz said a few hours later about to board her plane back to Colorado. “I knew what Las Vegas was like but I could never have imagined I would get this far.”
With the win, Ormeno Ruiz automatically qualifies for the USTA National Indoor Championships in New York City on Nov. 12-15.
"I'm proud of the work Nuria has done on and off the court with both mental and physical work," CU coach Nicole Kenneally said. "This is well deserve and also a well-earned opportunity for her to compete on the national stage in New York City."
“Regionals is always a good experience to see all the players from this region and see how the level of competition is going to be this year,” Ormeno Ruiz added. “I couldn't be more excited to play Indoors in New York next month.”
Ormeno Ruiz improves to a perfect 10-0 to start her junior campaign, including a run of seven straight matches in Las Vegas to claim the regional title that began with more than 120 players in the main draw. Sunday's match marked just the third of those 10 matches that was pushed to a third set, and it's the second time she's come back from a first-set loss to win this season, something she's accomplished 10 times in her career.
“Coach Blake (Mosley) gave me some really good tips and even though Julia was smacking the ball, I kept calm and positive and it worked out well,” Ormeno Ruiz said. “Then when it started raining, I was like 'Oh, no, please!' I was a little scared because I haven't practiced indoors since last spring, but I got focused from the beginning and told myself I wasn't going to lose.”
Ormen Ruiz's 10-0 start is the best start in Kenneally's 17 years at the helm of the program and believed to be the best start by a CU tennis player since 1980 when Kathleen Cummings began that season 22-0. Cummings was ranked as high as No. 48 in the world during her time at CU and at one point was the highest ranked amateur player in the world.
While Ormeno Ruiz is the first player in CU history to win the singles title at an ITA Regional event, this is CU's second regional title in the past two years, as last year Julyette Stuer and Kyra Wojcik won the doubles title here becoming the first duo to accomplish that feat.
She is 20-3 in sets and now 130-71 in games this season, winning her 48th career singles match and 78th overall win counting doubles matches. Her 48 wins in singles is already tied for 33rd in CU history.
USTA/ITA Mountain Regional
Championship Match
Nuria Ormeno Ruiz (CU) def. Julia O'Loughlin (DU), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
