Buffaloes Sweep Bears

BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's tennis team swept the University of Northern Colorado, 7-0, Saturday afternoon in front of a packed crowd at the Boulder Country Club.

"It was definitely fun, I think we got the best crowd we have had so far this season," said head coach Danielle Steinberg on the win in front of the home crowd. "I keep telling the team if we do well we can build a really good home crowd here. It was good to play in the Boulder Country Club. I think it is really important to get out in the community and have the people that are not coming to RMTC know that there is a really good tennis team and build a larger support group. It was a little struggle for us to get use to the different atmosphere and courts so I think we started a little slow in singles, but as soon as we got comfortable we did very well."

Colorado (4-3) was led by a pair of upper classmen against Northern Colorado (3-3) in Annabelle Andrinopoulos and Monica Malinen that had game winning streaks of 10 and 11, respectfully, to take the No.1 and No.4 singles wins. The two also led the No. 3 and No. 1 doubles teams to 6-1 wins with Andrinopoulos joining Ky Ecton at the No.3 doubles match and Malinen joining Tallulah Farrow in the No. 1 doubles position.

"Both are very different," said Steinberg on the upper classmen. "Monica this is her first year here as well. She is more experienced but still new to CU. You can definitely see her experience in match play, closing out matches very quickly. Belle give us a ton for the team as far as real CU leadership. She has been her four years, knows everything, knows how things work, know how a season goes."

Andrinopoulos clinched the win for the Buffaloes despite dropping the first set 6-3 against Anna Battersby in the No. 1 singles match. The senior found herself down 2-1 before she had an onslaught of 10 straight games to take a 6-2 second set victory and 5-0 set three lead. Battersby took the next game to bring it to 5-1, but Andrinopoulos closed out the CU victory with a 6-1 victory in the third set.

Malinen was dominant from start to finish in the No.4 singles match, taking the first set 6-0 in less than 20 minutes. She led 5-0 in the second before Madeline Doherty won a game to make it 5-1. Malinen closed out the win 6-1, winning 11 straight games before surrendering one.

Colorado secured the sweep in the final match with freshman Ecton defeating Synclair Laron in the No.6 singles match. Ecton dropped a close first set 7-6 and found herself down 6-0 in the seven-point tiebreaker. She clawed back with five straight tiebreaker points but was unable to push the comeback farther. Ecton then dominated the second set 6-1, and the coaches decided on a 10-point tiebreaker third set to decide the match. Ecton jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead and closed out the sweep 10-4.

The first singles victory came in the No.2 match with Sara Nayar defeating Sandra Keta 6-2, 6-4. Quickly behind her Megan Forster defeated Raffa Mora in the No.3 singles match 6-3, 7-5 to give CU a 3-0 lead. The two Buffaloes also worked together in the No.2 doubles match but were down 3-2 when the No.1 doubles team secured the team point and the match was abandoned.

"We are very pleased with her," said Steinberg on Nayar's success. "I think people underestimate how hard it is to come in January and start off right away with season with no time to adjust. We always, with the players that come in January, give them a little lee-way but both of our January freshmen have done very well so far and we are very pleased with them."

Tallulah Farrow also had a slow start for Colorado in the No.5 singles match, winning 7-5 after trailing 5-4 in the first set. The freshman ended the match quickly in the second set in a 6-0 finish.

"We have nothing to lose going out there to their home court," said Steinberg on tomorrow. "Denver is always a good team and they are having a good year so far so we are just going to go out there and give 100 percent and have fun with it."

Colorado heads to Denver to take on the Pioneers tomorrow evening at 4:30 p.m. The Buffaloes then are on the road in New York and Idaho before returning to Boulder March 8 to open Pac-12 play against Washington.

Results: (listed in order of finish)
Doubles:
No.3 Andrinopoulos/Ecton (CU) def. Chhabra/Larson (UNC) 6-1
No.1 Malinen/Farrow (CU) def. Mora/Keta (UNC) 6-1
No.2 Battersby/Doherty (UNC) vs. Nayar/Forster (CU) 3-2, undecided

Singles:
No.2 Sara Nayar (CU) def. Sandra Keta (UNC) 6-2, 6-4
No.3 Megan Forster (CU) def. Raffa Mora (UNC) 6-3, 7-5
No.1 Annabelle Andrinopoulos (CU) def. Anna Battersby 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
No.4 Monica Malinen (CU) def. Madeline Doherty (UNC) 6-0, 6-1
No.5 Tallulah Farrow (CU) def. Sarina Chhabra (UNC) 7-5, 6-0
No.6 Ky Ecton (CU) def. Synclair Larson (UNC) 6-7(7), 6-1, 10-4*
*Tiebreaker third set to 10 points

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Annabelle Andrinopoulos

Ky Ecton

Tallulah Farrow

Megan Forster

Monica Malinen

Sara Nayar

Players Mentioned

Annabelle Andrinopoulos

Ky Ecton

Tallulah Farrow

Megan Forster

Monica Malinen

Sara Nayar