Balzert Named Pac-12 Player of the Week

BOULDER – Colorado senior Antonia Balzert earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors following the CU Tennis Team’s weekend sweep over the Washington schools.

The Dusseldorf, Germany native led the Buffs by winning both of her matches at No. 1 singles to help sweep the Washington schools for the first time since Colorado joined the Pac-12 in 2011.

The weekend started against Washington State on Friday in the first home outdoor match of the season. Balzert closed out the match against Washington State after being down 5-3 and coming back to win 10 straight sets to clinch the point. The Buffs would go onto defeat the Cougars 5-2 and earn their first conference win of the season.

But the match of the weekend came on Sunday against No. 16 Washington and No. 97 Hikaru Sato. In a nearly three-hour match Balzert fought throughout the entire match but it came down to a tie-breaking third set victory clinching the upset for Colorado defeating Washington for the first time since 1991.

Balzert currently holds a singles record of 17-12 on the year, 10-7 in the spring playing exclusively at No. 1 singles.  With her two wins this past weekend, Balzert has won 50 career singles matches at Colorado, becoming the 36th player in CU history to hit that mark.  Her 14 career wins at No. 1 singles is the 12th-most in CU hisotry.  

The weekly honor is the first for the Buffaloes this season and the first for Balzert’s career. It is just the third Pac-12 Player of the Week honor in program history for the Buffs. The last coming from Monica Malinen in 2019.