Colorado's Dominance at Milwaukee Classic: Crncan and Ternstroem Shine

GLENDALE, Wis. – On a long, crowded Saturday at the 50th Annual Milwaukee Classic, Colorado didn’t just survive the schedule. It imposed itself on it.

At the center of it all stood Heidi Crncan and newcomer Louise Ternstroem, who turned the Nicolet Tennis Center into their own workshop, methodically putting together a perfect day.

Crncan and Ternstroem set the tone

The morning started with doubles, and Colorado came out sharp.

Crncan and Ternstroem blitzed USF’s Sienna Leeson and Josefine Falster 6-1, a ruthless performance that never allowed the Bulls pair a foothold. One break, then another, and the match was gone almost as quickly as it began.

That early aggression mirrored the work of their teammates. On the adjacent court, Lera Alexin and Ema Bubalo handled Purdue’s Ece Gencer and Nehir Dogan 6-3, a composed display that gave the Buffaloes a clean sweep in the 8 a.m. session and a jolt of early momentum.

Head coach Anthony Pham saw something different from the previous day.

“We made some good adjustments from yesterday,” he said. “We took a step forward today, and we want everybody to finish the tournament on a positive note tomorrow.”

The step forward was obvious in the way Colorado attacked big-name opposition.

Alexin and Bubalo push a top-15 pair to the brink

The headline doubles test came next. Alexin and Bubalo walked into a clash with the No. 14-ranked pair in the country, North Carolina’s Anna Frey and Alanis Hamilton, and refused to be intimidated.

They traded blows, dragged the Tar Heels into a tiebreak, and then into deep water.

The breaker turned into a mini-epic. Match points saved. Match points created. More saved. Colorado’s pair kept swinging, kept holding their nerve, before finally falling 7-6 (10) in a narrow defeat that felt like more than just a loss on the scoresheet.

“They fought off several match points,” Pham said. “That was a highly ranked team. We had match points and fought off several match points. They showed good level and good poise, just unfortunately fell a little short.”

The other Buffaloes duo hit a wall in its second outing. Crncan and Ternstroem ran into LIP’s Deborah Collado Dominguez and Mariia Dolzhenko and were beaten 6-1, a rare one-sided scoreline on a day that otherwise belonged to Colorado’s top-performing pair.

What came next, though, turned the day into a statement.

Crncan in control

In singles, Crncan didn’t just win. She dictated.

First, she dismantled Milwaukee’s Karolina Skowronska 6-1, 6-2, barely giving up games, let alone momentum. The second-year player from England carried that same authority into her next match, brushing aside LIP’s Deborah Collado Dominguez 6-2, 6-3.

Two matches, four sets, and not once did an opponent win more than three games in a set. Crncan finished the day 2-0 in singles, her scorelines as clean as her baseline patterns.

Ternstroem announces herself

If Crncan provided the polish, Ternstroem supplied the edge.

The lone newcomer on the roster played like she’d been here for years. She opened with a brisk 6-2, 6-3 win over Marquette’s Emmerson White, never looking troubled, then dug into a more physical contest with Purdue’s Nehir Dogan.

That second match turned into a test of temperament. Ternstroem edged a tight first set 7-5, then slammed the door with a dominant 6-1 second set, closing out her own 2-0 day in singles and matching Crncan’s perfect record.

For Colorado, the spine of the lineup had just delivered.

Alexin and Bubalo show fight

Behind them, Alexin and Bubalo added layers to the performance.

Alexin opened singles against USF’s Josefine Falster and pushed hard in the first set, only to drop it in a tiebreak, 7-6 (3), before falling 6-4 in the second. The response was immediate. She returned to court and ripped through Marquette’s Elise Barnstedt 6-2, 6-2, a no-nonsense rebound that underlined the depth of the squad’s resolve.

Bubalo’s day was all about margins. She went the distance with Kansas State’s Sabrina Balderrama, trading sets 6-3, 4-6 before the match came down to a deciding tiebreak set. Balderrama edged it 1-0, leaving Bubalo on the wrong side of a fine line despite a gritty effort.

By the end of play, all four Buffaloes had shown something tangible: poise in tiebreaks, authority in straight-set wins, and a willingness to lean into the pressure rather than shrink from it.

One last push in Milwaukee

Sunday brings the final chapter of the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, a lighter schedule but no less important for Colorado’s evolving early-season identity.

Bubalo and Alexin will team up for one more doubles match, another chance to turn near-misses against elite opposition into a signature win. Crncan and Ternstroem will return to singles, looking to extend the form that turned Saturday into their stage.

They’ve already taken a step forward. The question now is how far this group can push that stride as the season gathers pace.