The Utah women’s tennis team made a strong showing last weekend at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder. The Utes — competing against five other teams — got in a large quantity of matches. The team had 33 total singles matches played and was victorious in well over half of them.

“I feel like overall it was good because we were looking for a lot of match play,” said head coach Mat Iandolo.
The four-day tournament saw a consistent flow of momentum that helped carry Utah. Day one was fairly successful, as the team gathered six victories to kick off the season.
In doubles match play, competing against a duo from Southern Illinois, freshman Jena Cheng and senior Elena Najera-Salas came out on top 6-2. Fellow freshman Victoria Robertson and junior Alexia Petrovic followed that win with a victory of their own, 6-4.
The singles bracket also went well for the Utes on day one as they had two matches go their way. Petrovic kept the momentum from her doubles victory when she bested Elly Fryberger of Arkansas 7-6(3), 6-0. Her partner for the doubles, Robertson, also won her singles match 6-3, 6-2.
On day two, Utah kept up the momentum by picking up another seven victories.
“I expected that we would win a lot of matches,” he said. “I thought, relative to the competition there, even without two of our best, I felt that we were as good of a team as any.”
The Utes doubles play continued to be stellar when Najera-Salas and Cheng remained unbeaten, along with the duo of Robertson and Petrovic. Even the pair of Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa and Sarah Richter, who lost their previous doubles matches, picked up a victory against a duo from Arkansas.
“I’m pleased, because even where we didn’t win matches, we definitely learned about each individual, [which] gave us valuable insight on what we need to work on,” Iandolo said.
On day three, both Da Rosa and Robertson advanced to the black draw final for singles. Da Rosa won her match against Sharon Coone of New Mexico, and Robertson beat Nicole Wellman of Liberty to set up a showdown between Utes. Also seeing success for Utah on day three was Richter, who secured a spot in the gold draw final by beating Maria Khval of Liberty.
The final day of competition saw a lot of Utes in action. Leading the way was Da Rosa, who claimed the black draw title over her teammate Robertson in the 7-6(3), 6-2. Richter, however, did not come away with a victory as she fell 6-2, 6-1 to Colorado’s Julyette Steur in the No. 1 bracket.
Iandolo said this tournament was critical for the freshman to get real-time college athletic experience. Being without two of the team’s best players, the head coach said there was plenty of good match play, and the team improved a lot during the tournament.
“I kind of hand-selected that tournament,” Iandolo said. “I knew that if we played halfway decently, we would win a lot of matches. It was a good start. Even though everyone didn’t have incredible results, we learned a lot about each player, and we’ll transfer those lessons to practice.”
Despite seeing a lot of success, Iandolo is hoping to see a little more consistency out of his squad throughout the rest of the season.
“I feel like in a few matches we had some breakdowns [on] the consistency of the basic elements,” he said.
While all the other Utes have the upcoming weekend off, senior Tereza Bekerova will be hard at work. Bekerova, who missed the Colorado Invitational, will compete in the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships at the Riviera Tennis Club.
“I am very happy for Tereza,” Iandolo said in a press release. “It is good for our team and her personally to have her compete in the main draw of the biggest college tournament of the fall.”
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