Colorado University Athletics
Buff Volleys With Coach Kenneally
Nicole Kenneally
Colorado Tennis head coach Nicole Kenneally will share her thoughts with Buffs fans on her team's progress throughout the 2009 spring season. This week she reflects on a strong victory over a nationally ranked South Florida team.
Dear All,
Last weekend we had a treat to fly to Albuquerque to play South Florida! I know, I know everyone is wondering why we went there to play them and only them. Scheduling is completed usually 18 months to two years in advance and we already had our match scheduled with UNM up in Oregon, and we knew USF would be a good team and the opportunity to play them in New Mexico was worth it!!
The match on Sunday was a great match for us. The ladies competed really hard and took care of business during the close sets. We stepped up to the plate and took it to them!
Melisa Esposito
Our doubles line up was a new one...although it was Melisa and Cami’s second match together. We played Franzi and Ania together at 2 and then brought Abbie and Michala back together. They played together in San Diego in the fall and combine well together. All three teams got away to good starts and playing solid doubles. We won at #3 first with a decisive 8-1 win. Melisa and Cami also played solid and traded several breaks with their opponents before falling 8-5. When #1 doubles had finished we were up 7-4 at #2 and did a good job of closing it out 8-4. We were happy with how we competed in the doubles but we knew we had six singles matches to play and we needed to take care of business out there.
Melisa started us off with a strong performance at #1 singles with a straight set victory. The remaining matches were all in battles and we did a great job at 2 through 4 if capturing the first sets in close fashion. Unfortunately we did not pick up wins at 5 & 6 however Ania and Michala continue to play hard and learn and improve on each day. Cami was our third point to win and she won a tight first set and then took control in the second. At this point Abbie had won the first and was even in the second. Franzi had won the first and was even in the second so two close matches. We needed one (but wanted both!) and they needed both to pull off the win. Abbie and her opponent did a good job of holding serve and maybe trading one break each during the second set. Abbie ended up doing a great job at 5-5 and held serve confidently. Her opponent now had to come out with the goods at 5-6 to get it to the tiebreaker. She did get up 40-15 but Abbie hung in there and got it back to deuce. Abbie had an add or two and so did her opponent, neither could convert. Abbie got her opportunity with another advantage, Abbie hit a solid return and the player hit a forehand long. Great job Abbie with closing out the match in a tight circumstance. At this point Franzi was on serve and down 5-4 in the second set. Franz won the first in a close 7-5 battle. With the troops rallying around Franzi she did a great job in closing out the match and securing a 5-2 win for the Buffs.
Abbie Probert
South Florida is a good team that was ranked #43 in the country. They will continue to have a good season and this is an important win for the squad. This weekend we travel out to Stanford to compete in the ITA National Indoor Kickoff Weekend. There are 15 sites around the country were there are four teams competing. The winner of each site will move on to the final site for the National Team Indoor National Championships. The host final site receives an automatic bid. The teams competing all qualified based upon their end of season ranking last year. We will play Stanford and then will follow that up with either Illinois or UNLV. It is going to be a great weekend of tennis at Stanford as well as in many other locations around the country. If you are interested in watching and seeing where the sites are, for men and women, please visit www.itatennis.com and you will find info on the front page.
All the best and GO BUFFS!
Nicole