Preview in front of the team's conference season opener Friday hosting the Ducks -
Direct link -
https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/3/5/tennis-buffs-continues-on-the-right-track
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BOULDER – Almost three years ago
Anthony Pham took over the Colorado Buffaloes tennis program. After slowly growing and improving, the program is coming off of a 9-0 month of February and an 11-1 start to the season, the best in program history, a sign of things to come for Colorado tennis.
When Pham took over for former head coach Danielle Steinberg, the Buffs were coming off a season where they posted the best conference record since joining the Pac-12 in 2010. For Pham the vision was simple, bring in good people above all else.
"For me, it's always been about finding good people first and foremost, good students, and good tennis players," Pham said on his original vision for the program. "But for us, we put such a premium on finding players who are good people first because we spend so much time with them every day that you just can't overlook something like that."
One of the first players who checked the boxes for Pham as a head coach was the now-junior
Mila Stanojevic from Heidelberg, Germany. After deciding late in the game to go to college, Stanojevic was recruited by Pham in June of 2021 not knowing what she was looking for having never been to the United States.
After speaking with Pham, the two things that stood out to Stanojevic were the strong academics and the high-level athletic program being in at a Power 5 conference, but upon her arrival in August she saw so much more.
"I came here and I realized that Boulder is an amazing place," Stanojevic said on her first thoughts of Colorado. "The culture here, it didn't take me a lot of adopting from back home to come here, it was the perfect choice for me. The campus is beautiful, it is one of the best in the country. Everyone was insanely nice; I did not expect that compared to Germany. Everyone was so nice all the time, in the facilities and outside in the community. We get treated so well with a fueling station and just the whole everything around it is just perfect here."
The first season together there was a learning curve for both the players as well as for Pham as a coach, finishing the first season 8-14. Part of that adjustment was getting used to college dual play, as opposed to individual competition. For Stanojevic that was not an easy adjustment her freshman season.
"The fall is more similar to what you're experiencing before competing in college, you play individually and it's not so much with the team," Stanojevic on the adjustments to college tennis. "When spring hit, it was just like, 'Oh my god', this is a completely different way of playing tennis, but it made tennis way more fun. To experience it in that way made freshman year a challenge. It was a new environment to come into, but it was so fun."
Pham and the rest of the Buffs grew together in their second season, winning 13 matches total including the first Pac-12 Tournament win and the team's first postseason appearance since 2006-07, advancing to the semifinals of the first-ever National Invitational Tournament.
The Buffs also recorded the most dual wins in a season, 13, since winning 16 in 2006-07.
This season, Colorado returned seven of eight players from its previous milestone year and Pham had already begun thinking of what a special year could be on the horizon, the day the season ended a year ago.
"We had a lot of firsts, a lot of steps forward, now hopefully with the group we have coming back and the group we have incoming, we're hungry for more. We can't be content," Pham said about the returning players. That was the sentiment shared by the returning players, as they reflected on the previous season.
"Last year we made it to the NIT, and that was fun to be able to play in the postseason, but it was not because we knew that we were capable of achieving more," Stanojevic on last season.
Going into the 2023-24 season Pham added three new freshmen
Ema Bubalo,
Willow Gretsch, and
Pia Rebec to the roster bringing the team to 10 players for the fall season. That would not be the last addition, Pham added
Alexandra Abyasova a transfer from Illinois State right before the start of the dual season for some added veteran presence.
With the roster fully formed, the season began at the annual ITA Kickoff where they faced off against a familiar foe in Stanford, ranked No. 2 in the country at the time. The match proved to be a sign of the changing tides for Colorado tennis. The Buffs won the doubles point and took the lead early against Stanford. The point was the first ever against the Cardinal in program history. Although the match ended in a 4-1 loss it was a monumental step in the right direction for the program.
Directly after the loss, the Buffs would go on a run, winning 10 straight, the second-longest winning streak in program history. The current winning streak includes a win against now No. 69 UNLV, going 7-0 away from Boulder, and a perfect 9-0 month of February the most wins in a perfect month in program history.
When asked what makes this group different, Pham believed it was the team's buy-in, "I think it's the buy-in. We've got a good group of upperclassmen and freshman, players who have been here for three years, two years, one year and I think it's gotten to a point now where they understand what the expectations are, the standards and they try to uphold those daily."
Both Pham and Stanojevic realize that the University of Colorado is a special place not only for them but for all involved. For anyone who wonders why would someone choose to play, attend, or support Colorado they strongly believe in what is being built.
"The program has changed so much, we're in such a good spot," Stanojevic says on why you should choose Colorado. "Now we're changing to the Big 12 where tennis is very strong, we're going to play against good programs and the competition will be very good. The facilities here are nice and the athletics are great. The team culture has changed to where we consider ourselves a family. We support each other in a way that I think it's very unique compared to other programs. The coaching staff is great. Anthony [Pham] has been here for the last three years and knows what he's doing, he's amazing. I wouldn't have wanted any other head coach."
For Pham, he has a slightly different approach, "Why not? You come to campus it's beautiful. The weather is great, we get over 300 days of sunshine. I've been fortunate to work at a couple of larger institutions and I can honestly say, we have the best support staff here. Top to bottom, our AD Rick [George], our sports supervisor, training, sports, medicine, nutrition, everyone that that comes to do contact with our team daily is unbelievable. Every little thing that a student-athlete and more needs to be successful."
For the players and coaches, they will begin Pac-12 play against Oregon this Friday at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center at 11 a.m. With the start of the final stretch of the season beginning, and while an NCAA appearance is the goal, the growth of the program cannot be understated. But for Stanojevic, as she looks back on her first three years before the home stretch of the season, one thing came to mind.
"My time at Colorado has been the most fun three years of my life so far, this has been the best experience I could have had."
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As always, assume a link for
live scoring will be available at
https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=colo sometime before the match begins.
Go Buffs!!!