NEW YORK CITY – The University of Denver women's tennis team (6-9, 3-0 Summit) returned from a bye week with a mid-week dual and a close 2-4 loss at No. 71 Columbia.
Denver continued to roll in doubles and added a win at No. 6 singles, though the Lions claimed the win with victories in four of the remaining five singles contests – though the matches were more tightly contested than the final scorelines may suggest.
Doubles:
For the ninth consecutive dual, Denver won the doubles point and did so on Wednesday with victories on the top two courts. DU's No. 1 team of senior
Andrea Burguete Beltran and junior
Marley Lambert posted a bagel – their first such win together and their 22
nd of the 2024-25 season.
Columbia leveled the doubles scoreboard with a win at No. 3, but DU juniors
Claudia Martinez de Velasco and
Louise Wikander clinched the point, 6-2, breaking in the fifth and seventh games.
Singles:
The Lions went up 2-1 at the start of singles with steady wins at Nos. 1 and 5 singles. They would get within a point of the dual at No. 3 singles but had to do so with a comeback in the first set after DU's Wikander kicked off play with a quick break.
Freshman
Natálie Cinková got back into the win column with a straight-sets victory at No. 6 singles. Despite going down an early break in the match, she would go on to win the first set in a tiebreaker, putting up a dominant performance to take it, 7-2. She traded breaks midway through the second set but broke for a second time to go up 5-4 and held in the next game to win the match. She has now won five of her last six singles matches and all in two sets.
Lambert began her match with a 6-4 win in the first set and broke on her first opportunity to start the second. Her opponent broke back and kept things on serve through much of the set before breaking late to get to a third set where she won the final four games to clinch the dual for Columbia.
The evening's only unfinished match saw Martinez de Velasco rallying back from a set down to force a third set at No. 3 singles. After giving up a break lead in the second, she claimed another break late and successfully made it to the third set to stay alive. She won the first and only game of the final set that finished before the match was abandoned.
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team continues its Ivy League road trip with a visit to Dartmouth on Friday, March 28.
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