Colorado University Athletics
Tennis Hosts AFA, LSU This Weekend
Doubles will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by singles.
On Sunday, the Buffs will also host LSU beginning at 10 a.m.
Thirteen-year head coach Nicole Kenneally ranks second in school history among women's tennis coaches in victories (129), and is third all-time among both men's and women's coaching victories.
The United States Air Force Academy is led by 14-year head coach Kim Gidley. She is the winningest coach in USAFA history with 165 victories. The Falcons are coming off back-to-back 16 win seasons, the most wins in a two-year period since winning 34 in 1999 and 2000, and are led by senior Tahlia Smoke and junior Melissa Cecil, both are ranked No. 4 in the Mountain Region for doubles after posting a 10-4 record in the fall.
In the head-to-head matchup between the two Centennial State schools, CU has dominated, holding a 12-0 advantage since the series began in 1990. However, the Falcons played the Buffs tough last year coming the closest of any match, 4-3 at the Air Force Academy. CU is 6-0 at home against the Falcons.
The 2012 CU roster presents a youthful presence in 2012 and will be led by lone senior Ania Anuszkiewicz. Erin Sanders returns as a redshirt-sophomore after missing most of the 2011 spring with an injury. The Buffs have a trio of sophomores in Winde Janssens, Carla Manzi Tenorio, and Kristina Schleich.
There's a pair of new faces on the Boulder campus as coach Kenneally welcomes Camille Sabourin (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) and Julyette Steur (Apeldoorn, Netherlands). Both Sabourin and Steur just began classes this week. They join freshman Ashley Tiefel, who begins her second semester with the Buffs. The freshmen trio matches the 2009 spring roster, also with three freshmen.
CU is coming off a productive fall campaign that saw Schleich and Janssens record eight and seven singles wins, respectively during the fall season. In doubles, Carla Manzi Tenorio won eight times, with Janssens and Schleich each tallying six apiece. Manzi Tenorio and Janssens teamed up for a 4-0 record.
The Buffs will host 10 matches this spring season with four during the January and February months being played at the Millennium Hotel Harvest House. One another home match will be played at the Meadows Club. If the weather cooperates, five matches in March will be played at the South Campus Courts.
Four of those matches are against CU's newest conference foes of the Pac-12. The Buffaloes will host their first-ever match against California on March 9. Stanford visits Boulder, also for the first time on March 11 and leads the all-time series, 3-0 (all three matches played in Palo Alto; last played in 2009). UCLA visits Boulder on March 23 and leads the series 1-0 (last played in 1982 in L.A.), and USC is here on March 25. The Lady of Troy will also be making their first visit to Boulder and hold a 4-0 advantage in the head-to-head series with all four matches played in Los Angeles, the last in 1998.