Sophomore Ania Anuszkiewicz returns a serve during a match against Missouri in the Millennium Hotel Harvest House bubble Saturday. The Buffs beat the Tigers 5-2. (CU Independent/Stephanie Loots)
Senior day arrived early for the women’s tennis team.
With two seniors leading the way, the Buffs broke their five-match losing streak and acquired their first conference win of the season as the women’s tennis team beat the Missouri Tigers with a score of 5-2 Saturday.
The match took place at the Millennium Hotel Harvest House in Boulder, bringing the women’s overall record to 8-8 and their Big 12 conference record to 1-4.
This win was especially nice for Melisa Esposito and fellow senior Monica Milewski, who broke new grounds on their personal bests.
Esposito and Milewski each have 10 spring singles match wins, and Milewski won her 20th match of the season, making this the second time she recorded 20-plus match wins in her career.
Milewski has also won eight of nine singles matches and nine of her last 11, as well as tying Franziska Jendrian for the most wins ever by a CU women’s tennis player at 161 wins.
She then tied Franziska Jendrian again for the most doubles wins in school history, which is 76 wins.
Finally, Milewski brought her career singles wins up to 85, which ties her for fourth in the school record.
Milewski said she tries not to think about which records she breaks or ties, but that it’s still exciting.
“It’s pretty cool,” Milewski said. “I’m just trying to finish off the year and not really worry about that, but it is nice.”
Senior Melisa Esposito and sophomore Madie Kern take defensive positions during a match against Missouri in the Millennium Hotel Harvest House bubble Saturday. The Buffs beat the Tigers 5-2. (CU Independent/Stephanie Loots)
In addition, Esposito improved her record to 78 career singles wins, which ties her for ninth place in the school record, and 152 overall wins, ranking her third in school history.
She also has 74 doubles wins, which puts her again in third place in the school record.
Esposito said she is happy with this news, but said she didn’t exactly plan on improving any of these records.
“I think it kind of just happened,” Esposito said. “It’s great of course, and it’s always nice to be successful, but at the end of the day it really always comes back to the team and how they do.”
Even with this record-changing day for her and Milewski, Esposito and head coach Nicole Kenneally said the team’s record is the most important number to them.
Even though this win broke the losing streak, Kenneally said she thinks every win is important.
“I think any win is good for morale and good for confidence and I think it was great for a couple of the kids to really come out and play well and fight hard,” Kenneally said. “I think that’s what it takes to win a team match.”
Esposito said she mostly agrees with this notion, but still enjoyed breaking the streak.
“I think all wins are important, but this one was especially nice,” Esposito said.
Kenneally emphasized the importance of playing as a team.
“I don’t think it’s just one or two players that make [a win)]happen, it’s a team situation,” Kenneally said. “They may be out there playing as individuals, but ultimately they should be playing for their teammates.”
Kenneally commended the team for its performance and said it is the reason they came away with a win.
“I think today we really hung in there,” Kenneally said. “We had some adversities at different times on different courts, but overall we hung in there, which I think is a great attribute of this women’s tennis team.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Kayla Cornett at Kayla.cornett@colorado.edu.
