Buffs Begin 2025 Season

BOULDER – After a successful fall slate the Colorado Buffaloes tennis team will begin the 2025 season at the Northwestern Tournament in Evanston, Ill. starting on Friday.

What has become a tradition, the Buffs arrived back in Boulder after the holiday break following the fall semester and immediately leave to go on a week long training trip, this year in Chicago.

Wrapping up the week will be the first action of the season against three high level teams in Notre Dame, Northern Illinois, and the host Northwestern. Each day of the tournament they will take on a different team. The matches will count towards each player's individual records but won't go towards the overall team record.

"We are excited to be competing this weekend at Northwestern against some strong competition," head coach Anthony Pham said. "We've had a good week of preparation thus far and are looking forward to getting started with dual match play."

Colorado and Pham will look to continue the trend of improving year after year. In the first three seasons under Pham the Buffs have increased their win totals from the year before for only the second time in program history to start a coaching tenure. The other was Nicole Kenneally from 2000-2003.

After a successful fall that saw different Buffs begin and continue to make a name for themselves. Two of the teams' veterans Aya El Sayed and Mila Stanojevic qualified for the ITA All-American Championships and became the first to earn first and second round victories since 2016.

For El Sayed in the same tournament in doubles with partner Pia Rebec they were seeded No. 6, the highest any Colorado student-athlete has ever been at this event.

Regionals became a high point during the fall season with three Buffs taking center stage. In singles freshman Rixt van der Werff blew through to the semifinals winning every match in straight sets before finishing in fourth with Stanojevic coming in third. Both qualified for ITA Sectionals after their performances.

In doubles, Ema Bubalo and Anya Nelson won the ITA Mountain Region Championships becoming the second in school history to earn this accomplishment. In winning regionals, the duo qualified for the NCAA Individual Championship, the first since 2007 and only the fourth time overall.

At the NCAA Individual Championships, Bubalo and Nelson took down Penn State's Olivia Dorner and Maiko Uchijimia to become the first doubles team to advance past the first round. Despite falling in the round of 16 the duo comes into the spring ranked No. 21 in the country and the No. 4 doubles pairing in the Big 12.

"Overall, I think our team this grown a lot over the last five months," Pham on the team. "We've got a really good group who get along well and do a good job of pushing one another. Joining the Big 12 brings new challenges and opportunities for us to navigate. However, our focus will continue to be on controlling what we can control and that is getting after it and continuing to improve each day."

Colorado will look to start the season strong before their first official match on January 17 against Air Force in Colorado Springs.

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Players Mentioned

Ema Bubalo

Aya El Sayed

Anya Nelson

Pia Rebec

Mila Stanojevic

Rixt van der Werff