GLENDALE, Wis. – On a long, busy Saturday at the 50th Annual Milwaukee Classic, Colorado didn’t just survive the grind. The Buffaloes imposed themselves on it.
At the center of it all were Heidi Crncan and newcomer Louise Ternstroem, who turned the Nicolet Tennis Center into their own workshop, piecing together a perfect day in singles and a statement win in doubles.
Crncan and Ternstroem set the tone
The day started early, and it started with authority.
Colorado swept the 8 a.m. doubles session, a jolt of momentum that carried through the rest of the schedule. Crncan and Ternstroem tore through USF’s Sienna Leeson and Josefine Falster 6-1, barely giving the Bulls a look at the match. It was clean, ruthless doubles: first strike tennis, quick decisions, no drama.
Behind them, Lera Alexin and Ema Bubalo handled Purdue’s Ece Gencer and Nehir Dogan 6-3, a composed win that hinted at what was coming next.
The real drama arrived when Alexin and Bubalo stepped up against the No. 14-ranked duo in the country, North Carolina’s Anna Frey and Alanis Hamilton. Colorado’s pair didn’t blink. They traded blows, saved match points, earned match points of their own, and dragged the Tar Heels into a tiebreak shootout. Only at 12-10 did the door finally slam shut on the upset bid.
It was a loss on paper. It felt nothing like one on court.
Head coach Anthony Pham saw what he needed: “We made some good adjustments from yesterday. We took a step forward today, and we want everybody to finish the tournament on a positive note tomorrow.”
Crncan and Ternstroem later dropped their second doubles outing 6-1 to LIP’s Deborah Collado Dominguez and Mariia Dolzhenko, but by then their real work had shifted to singles.
Crncan flawless in singles
From the baseline, Crncan looked like a player in complete control of her game and her day.
She opened with a 6-1, 6-2 dismantling of Milwaukee’s Karolina Skowronska, never allowing the match to settle into a contest. The second-year player from England then backed it up with another straight-sets win, 6-2, 6-3 over LIP’s Deborah Collado Dominguez.
Across four sets of singles, she never surrendered more than three games. No fuss, no frills, just efficient, winning tennis.
Ternstroem announces herself
If Crncan provided the template, Ternstroem followed it with her own signature.
The freshman, Colorado’s lone newcomer, handled Marquette’s Emmerson White 6-2, 6-3, a measured performance that showed maturity beyond her experience. Later, she stepped into a more physical contest with Purdue’s Nehir Dogan.
The first set was tight, Ternstroem edging it 7-5. The second was anything but. She ripped through it 6-1, turning a close match into a statement and closing her day 2-0 in singles.
On a roster still shaping its identity, Ternstroem played like someone determined to claim a central role.
Alexin and Bubalo battle through the margins
Not every storyline came with a perfect record, but Colorado’s depth showed.
Alexin’s day started with a narrow loss to USF’s Josefine Falster, 7-6 (3), 6-4. She pushed the opening set to a tiebreak, then stayed within touching distance in the second. The response was exactly what Pham would have wanted: a 6-2, 6-2 rebound win over Marquette’s Elise Barnstedt, sharp and decisive, with no emotional hangover from the earlier defeat.
Bubalo’s singles match was a grind that refused to give her any easy exits. Up against Kansas State’s Sabrina Balderrama, she dropped the first set 6-3, punched back to take the second 6-4, and then saw the match slip away in a deciding tiebreak, 1-0. It was one of those knife-edge contests that define early-season form, and Bubalo had already emptied plenty of energy in doubles.
Still, her work with Alexin in pushing the Tar Heels to the brink will linger as one of the day’s most telling efforts.
One last push in Milwaukee
Sunday brings the final chapter of Colorado’s weekend in Milwaukee, a lighter schedule but not a lighter standard.
Alexin and Bubalo will get one more crack at doubles, another chance to turn promise against elite opposition into a tangible result. Crncan and Ternstroem will close their campaigns in singles, both chasing an unbeaten run that would send them home from Wisconsin with exactly the kind of momentum a fall season craves.
They’ve already taken a step forward. The question now is how big they can make the next one.
