DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team (4-7, 1-0 Summit) began its 2025 Summit League schedule with a 7-0 sweep of Kansas City at Denver Tennis Park on Saturday afternoon.
 
DU continued its streak of posting a sweep in each of its four wins on the season so far.
 
Doubles:
For the fourth straight match, DU topped the battle for the doubles point, clinching it with wins on Courts 1 and 3 before closing out the sweep on Court 2. The top scoreline came from DU's No. 3 team of junior Hana Bečirovič Novak and freshman Natálie Cinková, whose 6-2 win was their best yet as a doubles team. They earned consecutive breaks midway through the match to go up 5-2 before their opponents got another hold, allowing Bečirovič Novak/Cinková to serve it out.
 
The No. 29-ranked team of senior Andrea Burguete Beltran and junior Marley Lambert secured the doubles point with the first of two 6-3 wins for DU. After conceding a break in the opening game, they won four straight games for a 4-1 lead. A couple of holds later from each team, Burguete Beltran/Lambert put Denver on the board, 1-0.
 
Juniors Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Louise Wikander were near the end of their match and needed just a few extra minutes to win it, 6-3, to give DU a clean sweep of the doubles matches. They turned a 3-0 lead into a 5-1 lead but were unable to serve it out on their first attempt, though they did successfully hold in the ninth and final game.
 
Singles:
For the first time in her collegiate career, Lambert posted a double bagel to give Denver a 2-0 overall lead. It marked her best result as a Pioneer since a 6-1 6-1 result at the 2024 Husky Invitational as part of DU's fall 2024 season.
 
Lambert's doubles partner Burguete Beltran followed her with a second DU singles win, the senior's second in as many matches. She matched Lambert's first set with a bagel as part of an eight-game win streak to start play. Her opponent got a hold for 2-1 in the second set before Burguete Beltran went up by a second break at 4-1 and then held match points in KC's next service game. Unable to convert one of those points, the Denver senior went on to successfully serve it out at 6-2.
 
Cinková won a bagel set of her own for the second dual in a row as part of a 6-0 6-1 win at No. 6 singles to clinch the victory for Denver. It matched the freshman's best result so far as a collegiate player, first achieved at the 2024 Bedford Cup in the fall. Her only game lost came in the third game of the second set.
 
At No. 5 singles, Bečirovič Novak won the first three games of her match on her way to a 6-3 first-set win. She was forced to rally back from a break down early in the second set but got back on even terms at 3-3. From there, the returner grabbed the break for both teams in four consecutive games before the DU junior broke the trend with a hold for 6-5 and then broke at deuce in the next game to seal it.
 
Breaks in two of her first three return games set Wikander up for an eventual 6-2 first-set win at No. 2 singles. She carried momentum into the second set, taking a 3-0 lead and then extending to a 4-1 lead. The DU junior gave one of her breaks back but was still able to hold the overall lead until she broke yet again in the ninth and final game.
 
The tightest singles set of the afternoon came from Martinez de Velasco, who moved up to the No. 3 spot for DU, marking her first time playing in the top half of the lineup. She started with a break in the match's first game but found herself back on serve at 5-5. The players traded breaks over the next two games to get to a tiebreaker where they also traded six-point win streaks to get to 6-6 in the breaker. Martinez de Velasco captured another minibreak and then won the next point on her serve to claim it, 8-6. She followed it up with DU's fifth bagel set of the day to finish off the dual and DU's 7-0 sweep.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team continues its first weekend of Summit League play when it hosts Omaha at Denver Tennis Park on Sunday, March 2, at 10 a.m. MT.
 
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