BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes Tennis team is once again appearing in two different tournaments in two different cities this weekend, the only difference this time is the team will no longer be playing in the same state. Part of the team will stay in state to compete in Fort Collins at the Colorado State Invite, while Aya El Sayed was selected to participate in the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina starting on Saturday September 30.
After just one year in Boulder junior Aya El Sayed has accomplished something that has not happened here since 2019, she was selected as one of 96 players across the country to compete in the ITA All-American Championships. She will start playing in pre-qualifying matches on Saturday September 30.
For those who watched her battle on the court last season this should come as no surprise. El Sayed primarily played at No. 4 singles, posting a 14-2 dual match record for the season, the second-best winning percentage in CU history in dual matches. She won 12 straight matches, going undefeated in February, March and April and was a perfect 5-0 in Pac-12 matches earning her All Pac-12 Honorable Mention.
Head coach Anthony Pham is confident that while this is an achievement for her, after last weekend she is ready to compete against the best. “For her it’s an achievement for sure, you have to get selected for this you don’t enter,” he said on El Sayed. “You go there understanding that she’s going out there and getting an opportunity to compete against the best in the country. She got five really good matches last weekend so she should feel more confident and comfortable on the court. We have the same kind of expectations for her going down there, give it our all, do our best, and represent Colorado and keep controlling what we can control.”
Back home the four Buffs who did not compete in California (Ema Bubalo, Willow Gretch, Anya Nelson, and Ellen Puzak) will go up north to Fort Collins for the Colorado State Invite. This is the first opportunity to hit the court this season for Nelson and Puzak and the first chance for Bubalo and Gretch to suit up as a Buff.
“We use these as opportunities to get better,” Pham said on the Colorado State Invite. “There will be some good competition up at Colorado State. For some of them they haven’t played matches in a couple of weeks,…
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