The Buffs lot 3-4 in their final home match
The Buff tennis team will have to hit the road in the next few weeks winless in their last home match with four away games to finish out the regular season.
In the team’s final home match Sunday, the Buffs lost 3-4 to No. 30 Texas A&M. The loss gave the Buffs a 7-10 record overall and 4-3 in the Big 12.
Head coach Nicole Kenneally said the loss to A&M was hard, but for the team to improve, tough match-ups are essential.
“Texas A&M is a very good team,” Kenneally said. “I think we’re all pretty disappointed but you got to keep putting yourself in those positions against those good teams. We got to keep believing we can do it.”
The match came down to the bitter end on the No. 5 court in a tiebreaking match between CU’s sophomore Melisa Esposito and A&M’s Morgan Frank. Frank proved to be too powerful as she beat Esposito in a two-set match.
Although the match was hard to take, Esposito said it would help her in the rest of the season.
“Today was a tough loss,” Esposito said. “You just have to use it to motivate. The season’s not over yet. We’ve done pretty well thus far, and we just to keep pushing. We’re right there.”
The rest of the spring season will be played on the road as the Buffs head to Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State for their last four regular season games. After that, they have the Big 12 Championships at the end of month in College Station, Texas.
Senior Veera Nurmi said for the Buffs to finish out the season well, they cannot dwell on Sunday’s loss.
“We have four more regular games this season,” Nurmi said. “It’s a totally new game. We just have to put this behind and move on and get a good week of practice.”
With Sunday being the last home game of the season it meant that seniors Nurmi, Victoria Almagno, Allison Quinn and Gleisy Torres Torres were playing their last match in Boulder.
Esposito said while it is sad, positives can come out of the seniors leaving too.
“You’re always going to miss (the seniors),” Esposito said. “We have to look forward to the future and who’s coming in and just trying to better the team as a whole.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Philip Fisher at Philip.Fisher@colorado.edu.
