The Colorado Buffaloes women’s tennis team secured a 4-2 victory over No. 28 ranked Oklahoma State at the Meadows Tennis Club on Sunday, handing the Cowgirls their first conference loss of the season.
With this result, Colorado’s record improves to 10-4 overall and 2-2 in Big 12 play. Oklahoma State now stands at 6-4 overall and 3-1 in conference matches. The win is Colorado’s highest-ranked triumph since defeating No. 16 Washington in 2023.
“Thank you to Michael Tasker and his crew for their help this morning, they are the reason these courts are ready to play,” head coach Anthony Pham said. “Really proud of the way our team competed. Obviously coming back from a tough loss this Friday, it shows we’re a resilient group.”
Colorado lost the doubles point but came back with four singles victories to secure the upset win. Individual upsets were achieved by Aya El Sayed at the top spot and Pia Rebec at No. 3 singles. Rixt van der Werff added a straight-set win at No. 2, while Yukiko Ikedo picked up a forfeit victory at No. 6.
In doubles play, Oklahoma State was forced to forfeit the No. 3 position due to having only five players, giving Ema Bubalo and Anya Nelson an automatic win for Colorado. However, Oklahoma State took both remaining doubles matches, securing the doubles point.
Ikedo’s forfeit win tied the match early in singles play before van der Werff gave Colorado its first lead with her victory over Anastasiya Komar. Oklahoma State quickly evened the score when Luca Udvardy defeated Lera Alexin at No. 4 singles.
Rebec then earned an upset against Rose Marie Nijkamp, followed by El Sayed’s straight-set win over Olivia Lincer to clinch the match for Colorado.
“It speaks to the character of the team,” said Pham, “And I am really proud of the way they went out and competed.”
Next week, Colorado will travel south to face UCF on Friday and Houston on Sunday.
The Buffs now have ten all-time wins over Oklahoma State and have surpassed last season’s dual match total with more than one month left in competition. The team has accumulated over one hundred career dual victories in singles as a group this year alone, including more than forty during this season specifically. Van der Werff has recorded her second Big 12 singles win of the year; Rebec tallied her first ranked upset of this season against Nijkamp; El Sayed notched her first ranked win of this campaign as well as her fifty-fifth career singles victory.
