DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team rallied from behind to earn a 4-2 win over in-state rival Colorado at Denver Tennis Park on Sunday.
 
In front of a packed house, the two teams battled for nearly in an hour in doubles before CU claimed the opening point. Denver responded to take a 3-2 lead after wins at Nos. 1, 4 and 5 singles before freshman Yunfei Cai clinched the dual for Denver at the No. 6 spot, fighting back from a set down to earn DU's final point.
 
Doubles:
DU and CU split the top two doubles matches, each ending in 6-2 scorelines. For Denver, the top duo of seniors Hana Bečirovič Novak and Marley Lambert earned the win after getting an initial break for a 3-2 lead in what was their second of five consecutive games won to secure the victory.
 
With Nos. 1 and 2 split between the teams, everything came down to the No. 3 match. The Colorado team of Alexin/van der Werff twice held breaks early, but senior Zoe Adkins and sophomore Natálie Cinková fought back to get back on level terms each time. The match remained on serve until the Buffaloes broke once more in the 11^th game and held serve on a deuce point to take the match and the doubles point.
 
Singles:
Denver regrouped in singles and started strong with three first-set wins before beginning to truly turn the tide in the second sets.
 
Senior and No. 79-ranked Louise Wikander grabbed DU's first point of the day to even things up at 1-1 after winning in straight sets in the No. 1 match. She traded breaks at the start of the first set but eventually consolidated breaks on her way to a 6-2 win. CU's Aya El Sayed took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but Wikander responded with three straight games won, then held her own break advantage at 5-4 and served it out at love in the next game.
 
CU reclaimed the overall lead with a win in straight sets at No. 3 singles, but the Pioneers had already started to seize momentum. Cinková evened up the team scoreline at 2-2 after winning two 6-4 sets at No. 4 singles. The match started with four consecutive breaks before both players found holds. The DU sophomore claimed another break late and successfully backed it up with a hold in what would be the set's final game. Unlike the first set, the second set saw holds for both players until Cinková broke twice for a 5-2 lead. CU's Pia Rebec got one break back on a deuce point, but Cinková went on to hold again in the 10^th game, doing so on another deuce point.
 
Bečirovič Novak gave Denver its first lead of the day in her return to the singles lineup, winning in two sets at the No. 5 slot. She held the first break of the match early in the first set but saw CU's Lera Alexin break back midway through the set before serving for the set up 5-4. Bečirovič Novak broke to stay alive at 5-5 and then broke again in her next return game to claim the set, 7-5. After dropping serve in the opening game, she answered with a third consecutive break of Alexin's serve before breaking again two return games later to go up 3-2. She stretched the lead to 5-2 and eventually closed it out at 6-4.
 
All eyes came down to third sets on the two remaining courts. Denver freshman Cai dropped her opening set in a back-and-forth affair that was determined in a tiebreak that saw CU's Lani Brotman claim a 5-1 before Cai started a comeback that ultimately came up short, 7-4. A break for Cai in the first game of the second set proved to be all she needed to force a deciding set. She again broke early in the third, but Brotman leveled things at 2-2. Cai reclaimed a break for 4-3 and held for a 5-3 lead. With Brotman serving to keep CU alive in the dual, Cai got to match point up 30-40 and successfully won the point to clinch the victory for Denver.
 
The night's only unfinished match was Lambert's No. 2 singles fight that had each player claim a set in a tiebreak. They had just hit a changeover with CU's Rixt van der Werff leading, 2-1, when Cai secured DU's win and allowed Lambert's match to go without a result.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team wraps up its dual season-beginning five-match home stand with two more matches against in-state teams when DU hosts Air Force on Friday, February 6, and Colorado State on Saturday, February 7, at Denver Tennis Park.