Colorado
Washington State
Tennis Defends Home Court, Defeats WSU, 4-3
March 29, 2015 | Tennis
BOULDER – For the first time this Pac-12 Conference season, the University of Colorado women's tennis team reached the winners circle taking a 4-3 win over the Washington State Cougars, Sunday afternoon at the South Campus Courts.
The victory broke a six-match Pac-12 skid for the Buffaloes this season (1-6) and improved their overall record to 10-8. The Cougars remain winless in conference play at 0-8 and fall to 12-10 overall.
Ironically, Sunday's win comes on the same day when CU last won a conference match (March 29, 2013), defeating Oregon at the South Campus Courts, 5-2. The win over Washington State also snaps a 19-match conference skid.
“Every win in the Pac-12 is a great win,” said CU head coach Nicole Kenneally. “Today was tough with the windy conditions and we fought through very well. We talked about having fun in the wind and using it to our advantage, and I think overall, we did a great job of doing that.”
The competition started as it did for the Buffs through most of the non-conference season, winning the doubles point. Securing the crucial point is something that has eluded them all conference season, and not winning the doubles points last occurred back on Feb. 15 in the 5-0 win over Nevada, some six weeks ago.
“Today it was huge,” Kenneally said about winning the doubles point. “First time we've had our full-strength doubles line up in about two, three weeks. So to have them out there, even though some of them haven't played together for a little bit of time, was a plus. That doubles points heading into singles, obviously gives you a little momentum.”
CU, nationally ranked at No. 64, took two of the three doubles matches behind the No. 1 team of senior Julyette Steur and freshman Tina Bokhua, and at No. 3 with sophomore Nuria Ormeńo Ruiz and freshman Kyra Wojcik.
Bokhua/Steur routed WSU's top doubles team of Luzina/Leenknecht, 8-2 jumping out to commanding 6-0. It was the first time the CU pair have played with one another in three weeks. It evened their Pac-12 record at one and improved their record to seven wins in 11 matches.
Steur also earned her 50th career doubles match victory.
The home team clinched the doubles point at No. 3 with Ormeńo Ruiz/Wojcik defeating Biryukova/Vasyukhina, 8-5. It was the second doubles point clincher for the Ormeńo Ruiz/Wojcik tandem this season, and their fourth overall win in dual play.
CU is now 7-1 this season when winning the doubles point.
With a 1-0 lead heading into singles, the home team saw dominant play at the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 6 positions.
After WSU evened the team score at one, Ormeńo Ruiz helped CU regain the lead for a 2-1 edge taking a 7-6(2), 6-2 win at No. 3 over Lize Leenknecht. Ormeńo Ruiz has now won three-straight Pac-12 matches, in addition to collecting her team-best 16 singles win of the year. The sophomore from Barcelona, Spain also leads the team in dual wins with 12.
The Cougars answered back with another singles win to again, even the team score, this time it was 2-2.
Moments later, senior Ashley Tiefel pushed the Buffs ahead 3-2 defeating Nastia Vasyukhina, 6-2, 7-5 at No. 6. It was Tiefel's fifth dual win all at the No. 6 slot and her third Pac-12 Conference win of the spring.
Not long after Tiefel's triumph, Bokhua, the Moscow, Russia native finally put away fellow country woman Elizaveta Luzina 6-3, 6-4 at the top singles position for the clinching fourth point. Bokhua raced out to a second set lead of 5-2, only to have Luzina rally, cutting her deficit to 5-4.
Bokhua recorded her third career singles clinching win and saw her first action on the court since March 6 at California due to injuries. She improves her singles record to 8-3 and her 12th win of the year.
Next week, the Buffs travel to No. 55 Denver on Friday, April 3, 1 p.m. to round out the non-conference portion of the schedule. CU returns to Pac-12 play in two weeks traveling to Los Angeles to take on No. 4 UCLA (Friday, April 10, 12:30 p.m.) and No. 1 USC (Saturday, April 11, 1 p.m.). The CU/UCLA match will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.
MATCH NOTES
• Only CU's third conference win since joining the Pac-12 in 20012 (3-34).
• CU has defeated Washington State (2015), Oregon (2013), Arizona (2013) – all in Boulder.
• CU/WSU are tied 3-3 all-time; Buffaloes break three-match losing streak to the Cougars.
• With the doubles win, her 50th Julyette Steur now has 108 combined singles/doubles wins.
• Nuria Ormeńo Ruiz has 36 wins in her two years at CU, trying for No. 42 on all-time singles list.
• CU's 10 wins are the most since 2010 (11 wins).
• CU is now 5-4 at home and won at the South Campus courts for the first time this spring (1-4).
No. 64 Colorado 4, Washington State 3
CU (10-8, 1-6 Pac-12), WSU (12-10, 0-8 Pac-12)
March 29, CU South Campus Courts
Boulder, Colo.
1d) Bokhua/Steur (CU) def. Luzina/Leenknecht (WSU) 8-2
2d) Bashota/Matejevic (WSU) def. Tiefel/Alex Aiello(CU) 8-2
3d) Ormeńo Ruiz/Wojcik (CU) def. Biryukova/Vasyukhina (WSU) 8-5
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
1s) Tina Bokhua (CU) def. Elizaveta Luzina (WSU) 6-3, 6-4
2s) Maria Biryukova (WSU) def. Julyette Steur (CU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
3s) Nuria Ormeńo Ruiz (CU) def. Lize Leenknecht (WSU) 7-6(2), 6-2
4s) Donika Bashota (WSU) def. Kyra Wojcik (CU) 7-5, 6-1
5s) Victoria Matejevic (WSU) def. Vitaliya Alkhovik (CU) 6-0, 6-1
6s) Ashley Tiefel (CU) def. Nastia Vasyukhina (WSU) 6-2, 7-5
Order of Finish: 5, 3, 4, 6, *1, 2
Players Mentioned
