No. 72 Buffs Fall to No. 9 USC

BOULDER – The No. 72 Colorado Buffaloes tennis team fell to No. 9 USC 6-1 at the CU South Tennis Courts Friday afternoon. This was the first match hosted outdoors this season.

For the first time this season Colorado (12-5, 1-4) lost at home after starting the season 4-0. USC (15-6, 6-1) brought two ranked doubles pairings and four ranked singles players to Boulder.

"We're disappointed that we didn't push through today, but we have to keep looking at it from the perspective as we're getting ourselves so many chances against a very good team," head coach Anthony Pham on the match. In doubles, they have two ranked and we're playing the way we want to play doubles, which is great. Singles again, I think, just in the matches that we lost very close sets. We know the margins are so small, especially when you play a good team and we have to just be a little bit more clear about what we want to do and stick with it and try not to go away from those things that are working for us."

Early on the Buffs took control of the match taking down both of the ranked doubles duos en route to the doubles point. Ema Bubalo and Anya Nelson earned their first ranked win as a pairing taking down the No. 54 duo in the country to get the day started. Nelson and Bubalo improved to 8-2 on the season and 4-1 in the Pac-12.

The second-ranked win came courtesy of Aya El Sayed and Pia Rebec at No.1 singles over the No. 14 duo in the country. This is the second-ranked win for El Sayed and Rebec as a pairing.

"That's a great bright spot for us," Pham commented on doubles. "We know if we can start the match up 1-0 it's a big deal for us. I think it's just a matter of us playing the style we want to play and I think that's something that we need to translate from doubles to singles."

The elements did nobody any favors today with wind gusts getting as high as 30 miles per hour. The wind stayed steady around 18 MPH the entire match making all the players have to adjust on the fly.

"It's windy for both teams and both players," Pham said on the elements. "I think we did a decent job. It's one of those things where I think we could have done a better job. The elements are things that you can't control and you try to control the things you can. Today the elements played a role but it was that for both sides."

Singles would not go the Buff's way with the Trojans taking all six in straight sets. Despite the results, three different sets would end in a tiebreaker.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Bubalo and Nelson got the first ranked win of the afternoon at No. 3 doubles taking down the No. 54 ranked duo from USC Fry and Piper 6-4 to take control of doubles.
Facing another ranked opponent El Sayed and Rebec found themselves tied at four games apiece against the No. 14 ranked duo Cayetano and Charney. The pairing rattled off two straight games to take the match and clinch the doubles point with a 6-4 win.
No. 2 doubles ended unfinished during a tiebreaker between Stanojevic and Ventura and Fairclough and Koenig with Colorado leading 4-2 when the match was unfinished.
Ventra had her hands full with the No. 28 ranked Emma Charney at No. 2 singles and found herself down 5-2 early in the first set. Ventura took the next two games to close the gap but wasn't able to get over the hump losing 6-4 in the first set. Charney took control in the second set winning 6-0 to tie the match at one.
In her first match in almost a month, Betina Tokac was tasked with No. 68 in the country Eryn Cayetano at No. 4 singles and Tokac started the match hot winning the first three games. Cayetano would storm back to win the first set 7-5 and finish it off with a 6-1 second set win.
Rebec moved back to No. 6 singles to take on Sloane Morra and didn't start fast losing the first set 6-1. It looked like the second set was going to be more of the same after falling 3-1 early, but Rebec fought back to tie the match at five games. Although, Morra took the last two to wrap the match for the Trojans and give them a 3-1 lead.
At No. 1 singles El Sayed fell to No. 100 in the country Snow Han 6-4, 7-5 to clinch the match for the Trojans.
Alexandra Abyasova battled from the first serve against McKenna Koenig at No. 5 singles leading to a first-set tiebreaker. Koenig was able to take the final point with a 7-6(5) first-set win. She maintained in the second winning the second set 6-4 giving USC a 5-1 lead.
In the final match of the afternoon, Stanojevic and No. 56 Grace Piper had almost as close of a match as possible with both sets going to a tiebreaker. The first set ended in favor of Piper 7-6(3). In the second set, Stanojevic held a lead for most of the tiebreaker but in the end, it went the other way giving Piper a 7-6(8) win.

UP NEXT
The Buffs will finish off the weekend on Sunday against No. 14 UCLA back inside the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center starting at 10 a.m.

RESULTS
No. 72 Colorado 1, No. 9 USC 3
April 5, 2024
Boulder, Colorado (CU South Tennis Courts)

Doubles
1. El Sayed/Rebec (CU) def. No. 14 Cayetano/Charney (USC) 6-4
2. Stanojevic/Ventura (CU) vs. Fairclough/Koenig (USC) 6-6 (2), unf.
3. Bubalo/Nelson (CU) def. No. 54 Fry/Piper (USC) 6-4
Order of Finish: (3,1*)

Singles
1. No. 100 Snow Han (USC) def. Aya El Sayed (CU) 6-4, 7-5
2. No. 28 Emma Charney (USC) def. Elys Ventura (CU) 6-4, 6-0
3. No. 56 Grace Piper (USC) def. Mila Stanojevic (CU) 7-6(3), 7-6(8)
4. No. 68 Eryn Cayetano (USC) def. Betina Tokac (CU) 7-5, 6-1
5. McKenna Koenig (USC) def. Alexandra Abyasova (CU) 7-6(5), 6-4
6. Sloane Morra (USC) def. Pia Rebec (CU) 6-1, 7-5
Order of Finish: (2,4,6,1*,5,3)

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Players Mentioned

Alexandra Abyasova

Ema Bubalo

Aya El Sayed

Anya Nelson

Pia Rebec

Mila Stanojevic

Betina Tokac

Elys Ventura