With the regular season coming to an end, Colorado State tennis needs the Mountain West tournament to turn the year around.
It hasn’t been an easy season for the Rams — with injuries early on, it felt like an uphill battle from the beginning.
“Right now, it’s (about) getting rest, recovery and recharging,” head coach Mai-Ly Tran said. “We’ve put in the work all the way up to this point, and as soon as we recover, I think we’ll be ready to go.”
Despite their overall record, the Rams are entering the postseason optimistic.
“I’m confident in us, and we have good chances, and I’m excited to make upsets in the tournament. We’ve been putting all the work in, so now it’s the last push, and as my coach likes to say, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint.’ So hopefully we peak at the tournament.” –Victoria Erechtchenko, CSU tennis player
Going 4-17 on the season and 2-8 in the conference has stung for the team, but the numbers don’t tell the full story. The Rams are shifting their focus on the tournament and how they will play, as the regular season is already behind and it is time to look forward.
“We just need to fine-tune some things and practice and get mentally ready,” Tran said. “We’ll see who we end up playing, and then we can prepare against that match.”
Despite losing more often than not, CSU managed to keep all of its matches close.
The Rams typically brought matches to three sets or overtime and fought until the very end. Their matches frequently boiled down to a few moments that decided between victory and loss.
“I think it’ll be really cool to see everybody in a neutral site where anything is possible,” Tran said.
Sarah Weekley and Victoria Erechtchenko are a doubles pair who will look to make a big difference in the tournament.
The duo shines playing under pressure. They don’t let tough situations get to them and are constantly reliable, coming through with valuable doubles wins.
“In the beginning, we played with no expectations of how we would do scorewise, and that’s something that we’ve continued throughout the whole season,” Erechtchenko said. “We love pressure points because they’re no pressure for us. It’s just pressure for (our opponents).”
The duo began playing together this year, quickly making a strong connection. Every week, the two seem to come back onto the court stronger than ever.
“In the fall tournament, coach just randomly put us together because both our doubles partners graduated,” Weekley said. “So it was just us, and then we just never thought it would work, and somehow it just did. Every match that we played after that, we were stronger.”
The pair has won eight of their last 10 full matches. In unfinished matches, the two are consistently in control when the match is called.
Weekley and Erechtchenko are 14-8 on the season and hope to carry the momentum they’ve gained into the tournament.
“I’ve just loved seeing them improve every single match, and I think that it’s just interesting how they came together,” Tran said. “We never imagined how successful they would be, but as soon as they got together, it made so much sense. … They complement each other.”
This season has set the players up to make big upsets in the tournament, proving the team’s overall record isn’t everything. The Rams have shown all season they have what it takes to win, but now they must prove it in the tournament.
“I’m confident in us, and we have good chances, and I’m excited to make upsets in the tournament,” Erechtchenko said. “We’ve been putting all the work in, so now it’s the last push, and as my coach likes to say, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint.’ So hopefully we peak at the tournament.”
The Rams have high hopes going into the conference tournament this week. Despite not having an easy season, the drive to turn that around will surely shine through in the tournament.
CSU tennis is on upset watch; all season it has played its games close, but now it is time to win.
Reach Mason Ford at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @mason_ford2891.
