Colorado Falls To No. 34 Baylor

Thursday, April 9

Boulder, CO

2 p.m.

Colorado

Baylor

April 09, 2026 | Tennis

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By: Teagan Schreiber, Athletic Communications Student Assistant

BOULDER – The No. 66 Colorado Buffaloes tennis team fell in a weather ridden match against No. 34 Baylor, 4-1, opening the last week of regular season competition at the Meadows Club Thursday afternoon.

Colorado now holds a 10-12 overall record and a 2-10 mark in the Big 12. Baylor improves to an overall record of 13-7, and an 8-4 mark in conference.

"We gave ourselves multiple chances today and poured our hearts out across the board," said head coach Anthony Pham, "Not having Aya [El Sayed] in the singles lineup made it a challenge, but everyone stepped up."

With the day starting off on a weather delay just minutes into doubles, Colorado was ready to fight adversity from the first serve.

In a windy battle following the suspension, the Buffs fell at the top two doubles positions to give Baylor the upper hand heading into singles.

The win from Baylor didn't prevent Colorado from capturing a match of its own. At No. 6, freshman Heidi Crncan put the Buffs on the board with her straight set victory over Luna Ivkovic, 6-0, 6-1, allowing the Bear just one game.

"Credit to Heidi," said Pham, "She played a great match, and it just worked out that we came up short on a couple of courts."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bears notched the first win at No. 2 with Aya El Sayed and Lani Brotman facing Na Dong and Alian Zack.

Following a 2-0 start from Baylor, the Buffs responded with two points of their own. The Bears followed, quickly notched four games to finalize the first win, 6-2.

At the top position, Lera Alexin and Rixt van der Werff matched up against Zuzanna Kubacha and Gabrielle Villegas. Colorado notched three games throughout the match keeping a back-and-forth battle but fell short at a 6-3 finish, securing the doubles point for Baylor.

At No. 3, Ema Bubalo and Anya Nelson trailed Kennedy Gibbs and Ivkovic by just a game, 5-4, before the match went unfinished due to the respective wins at the top positions.

Singles got started at No. 4 between Zack and Alexin, with Baylor finding the first win in two sets. Zack notched a 6-0, 6-1 win against Alexin to bring a 2-0 lead for the Bears.

The Buffs bounced back at No. 6 with an impressive straight set win from Crncan, who downed Ivkovic allowing just one game, 6-0, 6-1. Crncan's win brought the team score to 2-1, keeping the Buffs moving.

Baylor moved the score to 3-1 with a victory at No. 2. No. 114 Kubacha marked a straight set win over Bubalo, 6-3, 6-4, despite Bubalo notching four-straight games in the second set.

No. 61 Dong captured the final win for the Bears at the top spot, but it didn't end without a fight from Van der Werff. The Buff found an early lead in the first set, 3-2, before Dong brought it back to a 4-4 tie, taking two more games to capture the first set, 6-4. In the second, Van der Werff climbed from a 4-0 trail capturing four games of her own, but fell just short with Dong marking two more games, 6-4.

At No. 3, Brotman was just a game away from capturing a win over Gibbs before the match went unfinished due to the Baylor victory. Brotman took the first set after trailing 5-3, capturing four straight games to notch the 7-5 win. In the second, Brotman kept a close lead with Gibbs, bringing the set to a 6-5 lead going unfinished.

Nelson also held a close trail in her unfinished match, capturing the second set to bring her match to a final third. Facing Mu Jie Tzeng, Nelson dropped a 6-1 first set, then came back to find a 6-4 second set victory. The Buff trailed at just 2-1 in the third before going unfinished.

UP NEXT
Colorado will finish regular season play this Saturday against TCU as a part of AT&T Black and Gold Day. The match will begin at 2 p.m. (MT) at the Meadows Club, followed by a celebration for seniors Anya Nelson and Rixt van der Werff. More information and live results can be found @cubuffstennis.

RESULTS
Doubles

Zuzanna Kubacha/Gabrielle Villegas (BAY) def. Lera Alexin/Rixt van der Werff (CU), 6-3
Na Dong/Alian Zack (BAY) def. Aya El Sayed/Lani Brotman (CU), 6-2
Kennedy Gibbs/Luna Ivkovic (BAY) vs. Ema Bubalo/Anya Nelson (CU), 5-4

Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles

No. 61 Na Dong (BAY) def. Rixt van der Werff (CU), 6-4, 6-4
No. 114 Zuzanna Kubacha (BAY) def. Ema Bubalo (CU), 6-3, 6-4
Lani Brotman (CU) vs. Kennedy Gibbs (BAY), 7-5, 6-5, unf.
Alian Zack (BAY) def. Lera Alexin (CU), 6-0, 6-1
Mu Jie Tzeng (BAY) vs. Anya Nelson (CU), 6-1, 4-6, 2-1, unf.
Heidi Crncan (CU) def. Luna Ivkovic (BAY), 6-0, 6-1

Order of finish: 4, 6, 2, 1

NOTES

Colorado holds 111 overall singles victories this season, and 234 total in overall career wins.
The Buffs marked 50 dual singles victories as a team this season, and 100 as a team.
Crncan's singles win marks her second conference victory and fourth dual career win.