DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team (8-5, 2-0 Summit) started its 2026 Summit League home schedule with a 6-1 victory over South Dakota at Denver Tennis Park on Saturday afternoon.
After dropping only two combined games in the two completed doubles matches, Denver rattled off five consecutive singles wins, clinching the dual at 4-0 before finishing at 6-1 – the only lost point coming in an extended match tiebreak in the day's final match.
Doubles:
For the second time in its last three matches, Denver won the doubles point and did so in less than half an hour, losing just two games across the two matches that reached a conclusion.
The No. 3 team of senior
Zoe Adkins and sophomore
Natálie Cinková moved to 7-3 on the season with a dominant 6-0 win -- their second bagel of the year so far. They lost just six total points in the match and fended off the only break point they faced against their serve.
Seniors
Claudia Martinez de Velasco and
Louise Wikander clinched the point with just two game lost at the No. 2 spot. They jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and used two more service holds to secure the win and the day's first point for the Pioneers.
The top doubles match featuring DU senior
Marley Lambert and freshman
Yunfei Cai was abandoned with the Denver team leading 4-3 and on serve.
Singles:
Denver came within a point of the sweep but settled for wins in five of the six singles matches, three of which came in straight sets and after DU claimed five of the six first sets.
Cinková won her seventh straight-sets singles match of the 2026 dual season to start things off for DU, losing only three total games – her third time doing so thus far. She claimed a 4-0 lead to begin the match on her way to winning the first set, 6-2. After USD's Cassandra Marra held in the second set's opening game, the Denver sophomore won six consecutive games to finish it off, 6-1.
A couple minutes later, Cai put DU within a point of the overall win, also losing just three games to secure her third win in a row. Like Cinková, she held a 4-0 lead in the first set before winning the final three games for a 6-1 advantage. He fell behind a break to open the second set but again matching Cinková's effort, she went on a six-game win streak to seal it, 6-2.
Lambert clinched the dual for Denver up 4-0 with her second straight win at No. 2 singles. The first three games were on serve before Lambert claimed the first break for 3-1 as part of five-game win streak to earn a 6-1 win in the opening set. After trading breaks near the start of the second set, she went up what would be the deciding break at 3-2 before closing it out at 6-4.
Senior
Hana Bečirovič Novak earned a win in the first match to go beyond two sets. Traded breaks to begin play turned into an eventual 4-2 lead for the Pioneer on her way to a 6-2 first set. She rallied after giving up a break in her first service game of the second set but was broken once more in what would be the set's final game, giving USD's Ketevan Shavishvili a 6-4 set and leading to a match tiebreak. The start of the breaker nearly exclusively saw the server win the point until Bečirovič Novak went ahead, 7-4. She turned that into a 9-7 lead and successfully won her service point to take it, 10-7.
For the first time in 2026, Adkins rebounded after dropping the first set to finish with a three-set win at No. 3 singles. South Dakota's Anna Medvyedyeva won the first set, 6-1, before Adkins began her rally with a break in the sixth game of the second set. She served it out at 6-3 to force the deciding frame, which stayed on serve all the way until Adkins broke for 5-3 and held in the next game to complete the comeback.
South Dakota's only point game in a 10-point tiebreak at No. 1 singles. DU's Wikander eased through the first set, 6-0, and was on serve midway through the second set when she took a hard fall. After a visit with the trainer, she was cleared to resume play but gave up a late break to find herself in the match tiebreak. The deciding breaker remained tight all the way through, but it was Wikander who got to match point first up 9-8, but USD's Selena Bird fended it off to begin a three-point win streak to close it out at 11-9.
Up Next:
The No. 49-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team returns home for the first time in a month to host its Summit League home opener against South Dakota on Saturday, March 7, at 1 p.m. MT at Denver Tennis Park.
