Written by John Bush-Joseph
This last weekend was a busy one for Colorado College’s men’s and women’s tennis. Both teams took on two Division II teams, Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo. and then Metropolitan State University of Denver at the Lifetime Fitness Center in Colorado Springs.
The men’s team took a step in the right direction with a strong opening to their 2016 spring season, a 6-3 victory against Colorado Christian. The men had wrapped up the fall season in October with an overall 2-3 record. After a lot of preparation and hard work throughout the winter months, the team was ready to go. The men’s team had a great start to the weekend, winning all three of the doubles matches before going on to split the six singles.
There was especially good play from junior Jason Gutierrez and freshman Daniel Holland in both their doubles and singles matches.
“I think we played well overall; it was definitely a good way to start the season” said Holland. “Plus we got the win which is big.”
Sunday’s matchup against Metropolitan State was a little bit rougher for the men’s team. The team suffered a difficult loss with a final 8-1 decision to Metro State. Junior Jason Gutierrez pulled out the only victory for the Tigers with a come from behind of 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 for the No. 1 singles spot. Holland almost had a similar come back but unfortunately fell short, losing to Metro State 3-6, 6-3, 10-4. Metro won the rest of the four singles matches in straight sets.
It was a long weekend of ups and downs for the men’s team but now they have a little bit of time to learn from these matches before they square off against Clark University in their first matchup during the team’s spring break trip. Moving forward with an overall 3-4 record leaves the team both eager to see more competition and excited for what is to come.
Changing gears, the women’s team can look back on the weekend with a little more of a positive perspective. Their spring season started with a difficult opener last weekend where they took two rough losses to two very formidable Division 1 opponents, Colorado State University and University of Northern Colorado, in a big double header.
After having a week of practice to recuperate, the women showed up ready to play against Colorado Christian.
“For us, it’s really important that we start strong in the doubles matches, so we can earn three quick points and set the tone for the singles, and I think we did just that,” said freshman Annie Zlevor.
The Tigers rolled through the singles matches winning five of the six. The final 8-1 result for the night showed that the women’s team was not satisfied with their performance from the previous weekend. The Tigers made a statement out of the Colorado Christian Cougars, setting the tone for the rest of the spring season.
Sunday’s matchup against Metro State was much more of a fight for the Tigers. Even though Metro State had to forfeit one of their doubles and one of their singles matches by default, the competition still came down to the wire. Sophomore Natalia Dellavalle had a big night winning her No. 2 doubles match followed by a thrilling 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 victory in her singles match. Overall, the weekend was a huge success for the women as they move forward to spring break with an overall 4-5 record and a winning streak to preserve.
Both teams will travel to Orlando for their spring break trip. The Tigers are expecting a tough week of practice and conditioning while preparing for their trip down to sea level, but they have more than enough future opportunities to be excited about.