The Colorado Buffaloes women’s tennis team announced on Apr. 7 that it will host its final two regular season matches this week, facing No. 34 Baylor on Thursday and No. 20 Texas Christian University (TCU) on Saturday at the Meadows Club.
These matches mark the end of the regular season for the Buffaloes, providing an opportunity to honor their seniors while competing against two strong conference opponents.
Last weekend, Colorado traveled to play Arizona and Arizona State but lost both matches. The team came close to victory against Arizona, taking the match down to a tiebreak before falling short with a score of 4-3 after winning the doubles point and two singles matches.
“Just like everyone else in the Big 12, these are two great teams,” said head coach Anthony Pham. “The results show that there is so much talent in our conference, and that any given day anyone can beat anyone.”
On Thursday, Colorado will face Baylor with a historical series record of six wins and seventeen losses against them. Their last meeting was in March of last year when Baylor won 4-2 in Waco. The Buffaloes’ most recent win over Baylor came in 2006 with a home victory.
Baylor enters this week’s match with a season record of twelve wins and seven losses overall, including seven wins in conference play. The Bears have achieved three ranked victories this season over Kansas State, San Diego, and Utah. Two players from Baylor are nationally ranked: Na Dong at No. 61 with an eleven-win singles record primarily at the top spot, and Zuzanna Kubacha at No. 114 who has fourteen singles victories mostly at position two.
TCU has faced Colorado only four times since 1978 and has won all four encounters; their most recent meeting was last March when TCU swept Colorado 4-0 in Fort Worth. This year TCU holds sixteen wins with only three losses overall and nine wins within their conference schedule; they have also recorded seven ranked victories including a sweep over then-No.6 Arizona State.
TCU features Raquel Caballero Chica as its top-ranked player at No.83 nationally; she has earned seven singles victories this season playing exclusively at number one.
“Match to match, week to week, everything is a little different,” Pham said about preparing for senior weekend competition.”It’s our last two home matches, we have senior day, and we want to send off our seniors the right way.They’ve poured a lot of blood,sweat,and tears into this team,and we want to give them the send out they deserve.”
Both matches are scheduled for 2 p.m.Mountain Time—Thursday versus Baylor,and Saturday versus TCU.A celebration honoring seniors Anya Nelson and Rixt van der Werff will be held during Saturday’s event.More information can be found through @cubuffstennis.
