Buffs Set for Home Opener

BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes Tennis team will finally play their home opener after five road matches to start the season, beginning with the Air Force Academy on Saturday morning followed by Missouri on Sunday.

Each match to start the season for Colorado (4-1) has come and gone in many different ways, clean and dominating in the season opener against UC Riverside winning 7-0, an ugly grind it out match against UNC Greensboro, or a match where comebacks are required in the case of the most recent win against Wyoming.

Throughout all of those, different lineups called for different players to step up and perform. For head coach Anthony Pham no matter who is in the lineup the expectation is the same, to go out compete and finish matches the right way. The team is proving the ability to win any way they have to.

"At the end of the day you want to be able to win matches straight forward, but that's rarely the case because everyone you play is good," Pham said on the wins early in the season. "For the team I told them after the match against Wyoming, we're showing that we can win matches in many different ways. I think that is a sign of a good team, but also a sign of a team that believes in each other. At no point in any match have we panicked, its just a matter of continuing to build the belief that if we win the doubles point great, if we don't, we still have six singles players that can go out and compete."

Up to this point eight different players have secured a win for the Buffs this season across doubles and singles play as well as five different doubles duos.

Within the depth of the team, Colorado is witnessing veteran and new players alike contribute to winning. The contributions are split between the upperclassmen and underclassmen. Veteran players like Mila Stanojevic and Betina Tokac who started their career at Colorado the same year as Pham took over the program in 2021, have become mainstays in the lineup and the scoreboard.

On the other side new players Ema Bubalo and Pia Rebec who began their time as Buffalo only six months ago, have quickly joined the likes of Stanojevic and Tokac in being a key factor of securing each win. Each team is different but this year's team has blended the younger and older players to create something special.

"I think it is great," Pham said on the mix of veteran and new players. "It's just buy in across the board. We've had two people who've been here for three years now (Mila Stanojevic and Betina Tokac) and have only been here since we got started. We have some people who are brand new here and it's just one of those things where we are all doing this together. We're all learning, it's a unique team every year with new team challenges. As coaches we're very pleased to get the buy in overall and the camaraderie that the team brings every day."

As the Buffs look to continue their dominance in home openers having won 11 of the last 12 dating back to 2012. To do that they will have to take down Air Force (1-3) who are coming in after losing to Buffalo 4-3 a few weeks back.

"We're always excited to be able to play at home in front of our fans," Pham said on the home opener. "I we will look to have this be a continuation of getting better each day of practice and prepare ourselves for the opportunities that come to us. It's exciting to be able to play at home after a month on the road."

Following the match against Air Force on Saturday, the Buffs will need to be ready again on Sunday to take on Missouri (2-6) who come to Boulder one a two-match winning streak after sweeping James Madison and Liberty in Virgina last weekend.

Both matches will begin at 10 a.m. MT at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center with Air Force on Saturday and Missouri on Sunday. Follow along on our team's Instagram and X accounts @cubuffstennis. Live scoring will be available here.

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Players Mentioned

Ema Bubalo

Pia Rebec

Mila Stanojevic

Betina Tokac