Colorado Takes on Arizona Teams on the Road

BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's tennis team takes to the road this weekend for a pair of Pac-12 matchups against Arizona and Arizona State.

For the first time this season, every match this weekend will feature ranked opponents on both sides of the net. The Buffaloes (8-7, 1-1 Pac-12) will play at Arizona (8-7, 0-4 Pac-12) at 2:30 p.m. (MT) Friday with freshman Sara Nayar moving into the ITA rankings at No.121 in singles play to lead the team. She, Annabelle Andrinopoulos and Monica Malinen will have their hands full on Saturday against Arizona State (5-8, 0-4 Pac-12), as the Sun Devils boast three ranked individuals.

Colorado pushes into the rest of the conference schedule with a 1-1 record in the Pac-12, good for seventh. These first two matchups in the conference bode well for CU as they host the three schools at the bottom of the conference standings early. Having already played the Washington schools, Colorado will then move to the later half of the schedule where they play four of the top-five teams in the conference before finishing with Utah who is tied at 1-1 right now with CU.

The Buffaloes have won two matches in a row against Washington State and CSU and are 4-2 in the last six games. Nayar has pushed herself into the singles tennis rankings after a victory against Washington State's top-40 player and a solid 5-3 mark in the No.1 singles position. Nayar and Megan Forster picked up their 10^th wins in duals this weekend, while Malinen continues to lead the team with a 12-3 dual record in singles play.

In the past two wins CU has picked up the doubles point thanks to the new look brought on by head coach Danielle Steinberg. This will be important as the Buffaloes face two ranked doubles teams against Arizona State and another at Arizona. The Sun Devils have the second-ranked doubles pair in the nation in Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh, both of which are ranked as single players as well. Their teammates Samantha Alicea and Sammi Hampton are ranked 65^th in the nation. For the Wildcats, Emma Wilson and Sophia Thomas are ranked 47^th in the nation.

Arizona, coach Steinberg's alma mater, have been a streaky team this season and share the same overall record as the Buffaloes at 8-7. The Wildcats started the dual season with three straight wins, then suffered the same amount of losses. After stringing five wins together, Arizona entered a downslide with four conference losses to USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford. Arizona was unable to pick up a single point at Cal and No.4 Stanford, losing both 7-0. Arizona nearly upset No.6 UCLA at home but fell 4-3.

Arizona State has three individuals ranked in the ITA singles rankings with John-Baptiste at No.87, Hattingh at No.109 and Cali Jankowski at No.120. They also have two doubles teams ranked in the top-50, but despite their rankings are 5-8 this season. The Sun Devils have lost five-straight matches, beginning with a loss to No.11 Ohio State and followed with losses to UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal. ASU has managed to score at least two points against all of their opponents on the drought, coming up short in a 4-3 match against both the Buckeyes and Trojans.

Colorado returns home next Friday, March 29, to take on Oregon at 1:30 p.m. at the CU South Campus Tennis Complex.

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Players Mentioned

Annabelle Andrinopoulos

Megan Forster

Monica Malinen

Sara Nayar

Colorado University Athletics