Colorado University Athletics
Men's Tennis Hosts No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 47 Oklahoma This Weekend
BOULDER ? The University of Colorado men’s tennis team prepares for their season finale this weekend against a pair of nationally ranked teams at the South Boulder Tennis Courts against No. 47 Oklahoma on Saturday, April 23, and on Sunday, April 24, against No. 10 Texas Tech.
The Buffaloes (8-13, 1-4 Big 12), ranked No. 61 nationally return home after playing their last eight matches on the road. Seven of those eight matches were against nationally ranked opponents that saw the Buffs defeat a handful of ranked Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) elite players. Sophomore Jan Zelezny defeated the No. 36 ranked player from Texas (Callum Beale) and in doubles junior Chad Tsuda and sophomore Marcos Digliodo, CU’s top tandem defeated a trio of ranked opponents. The CU duo defeated then-No. 8 team from Boise State (Schoeck/Shields), the No. 11 team from Texas Christian University (Abreau/Sestini), and No. 48 from Oklahoma State (Kuharic/Diaz) back on March 22 at home. Entering the final week of the regular season, CU junior Marko Bundalo earned his first national ranking of his collegiate career coming in at No. 123. Bundalo, who has won three of his last four matches upset the No. 23 (Jerry Makowski/Texas A&M), No. 31 (Jonathan Chu/Harvard), No. 45 (David Canudas/ Southern Mississippi), and No. 78 ranked players (Eric Hechtman/Miami). For the season, Digliodo has the most singles wins on the team with 19, followed by Bundalo (18). Sophomore Marek Dvorak is third overall (17) with Tsuda having 16. In dual match singles play, Tsuda leads CU with 11 victories, along with Digliodo and sophomore Peter Bjork each having nine apiece. In doubles, Bjork/Bundalo and Dvorak/Zelezny each have nine wins this spring. Oklahoma (17-4, 2-4) has won four of its last five matches and holds a 36-15 advantage over CU in the series with four of the last six matches between the two programs decided by 4-3 decisions. Junior Tommy Garrison has won 15 straight singles matches, while senior Ondrej Fukala owns a 17-1 singles record and has won eight straight. Sophomore Marek Velicka is also on a roll with five of six wins. Velicka (52) and junior Alexei Ivanov (96) are both ranked nationally in the latest ITA singles poll. Texas Tech (21-2, 3-2), ranked No. 10 nationally has won 21 matches this season, the most under head coach Tim Siegel. The Red Raiders two losses are to conference opponents, Baylor and Oklahoma State, the top two seeded schools in the Big 12 presently. Sophomore Radek Nijaki is currently ranked No. 14 with a 10-4 overall record and a 4-1 Big 12 Conference record. Nijaki and sophomore Bojan Szumanski are 14th and 40th nationally in singles, respectively.
In case of inclement weather, Saturday’s match (Oklahoma) will be played the Millennium Hotel Bubble at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday’s match (Texas Tech) begins at 5 p.m.