BOULDER, Colo. – The University of Denver women's tennis team (0-1, 0-0 Summit) fell on the road in its opening match of the 2025 season, 2-5, to in-state foe Colorado on Sunday afternoon.
Half of the team's roster made its Denver dual debut in Sunday's match with freshman
Natálie Cinková playing in a collegiate dual for the first time in her career. Junior transfers
Hana Bečirovič Novak and
Marley Lambert also played their first dual matches as members of the Denver team.
Doubles:
Colorado claimed the Nos. 1 and 3 doubles matches with identical scores of 6-4, but Denver kept the Buffs from a sweep with a win from juniors
Claudia Martinez de Velasco and
Louise Wikander. DU's No. 2 team, which begins the dual season ranked No. 110 in the ITA doubles rankings, broke in the opening game and eventually claimed a 4-1 lead overall before serving out the match, 6-2.
Singles:
Denver captured its two points from the top and bottom of the singles lineup and both in comeback victories. Senior
Andrea Burguete Beltran got it started with a rally back after dropping a tight first set. Both players started out strong on serve. The only break in the set came against Burguete Beltran's serve in the 12
th game and only happened at deuce. The DU senior responded swiftly in the second, grabbing the first four games and eventually forcing a decider with a hold for 6-2. Burguete Beltran finished strong in the match tiebreak and posted a dominant 10-1 scoreline to give DU its first point of the afternoon.
The final match of the day and DU's second point came in the Denver dual debut for Bečirovič Novak. After starting her match with a break lead, she found herself back on serve for the back half of the first set and again surrendered her serve in the final game for 5-7. The DU junior faced an early deficit to start the second set but responded with two breaks of her own and broke yet again in the set's final game at 6-3. In the 10-point tiebreak, she was down a mini break at the first changeover but won eight of the final 11 points to claim the win.
For just the second time in her career, Wikander played at the No. 2 slot for Denver and held a break lead midway through the first set but ended up losing the set. She was able to break late in the second set with her opponent serving for the match before ultimately falling in the next game.
Lambert made her DU dual debut, playing at No. 3 singles. The first set was tight and followed mostly on serve before ending in a tiebreak. At the changeover, CU held a 4-2 lead and went on to hold multiple set points. Lambert fought off the first two but ultimately dropped the breaker, 7-4. The second set, too, was tightly contested with holds for both players until CU claimed the first and only break in the eighth game.
Martinez de Velasco took the No. 4 singles spot for the first time since 2023 and only the second time in her career. She traded breaks multiple times in the opening frame but saw a couple double faults cost her the final game at 4-6. She started to reverse course in the second set, jumping out to a 4-1 lead before CU got back on serve. A couple more late breaks eventually favored CU, including one in the 12
th and final game.
In her first collegiate dual, Cinková fell behind 0-4 early but showed grit in getting one break back and forcing her opponent to serve out the set, 6-4. A couple early breaks surrendered in the second set again proved to be too much for the freshman to come back from, though she again found holds late to keep things close.
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team travels to College Station, Texas, for the 2025 ITA Kickoff Weekend, hosted by Texas A&M on January 24-25. DU will first play TCU on Friday, January 24, at 10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT.
Denver's Home for College Sports
Visit
DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like
Denver Pioneers and
Denver Women's Tennis on Facebook
Follow
@DU_Pioneers and
@DU_WTennis on Twitter
Follow
@DenverPioneers and
@DU_WTennis on Instagram
