FORT COLLINS, Colo. – This was a date they all had anticipated.
In Mai-Ly Tran's first season as the women's tennis coach at Colorado State, she and her team worked hard to drum up community support, and it paid off at their home matches. Getting back on the courts outside in the fall for the Jon Messick Invitational, they were hoping for more of the same.
The Rams hosted a pair of community events the weekend before, and many of those faces returned for the opening day of tournament play at the CSU Tennis Complex. They were pretty sure the addition of hometown girl Ky Ecton would add a few more, which it did thanks to friends and family.
Even freshman Luana Avelar had a small contingent of fans on hand to cheer her on, which did not surprise Tran, even if the Brazilian had only been on campus for six weeks.
"Just getting to know Lou, she's a very outgoing person," Tran said. "Being a freshman and being in the dorms, I think she's done a great job of connecting with people. That's a great quality of hers, and as a coach, you want players to come in and have people to connect with. It's awesome to see her doing that."
Tran's not wrong. Avelar has a contagious enthusiasm to her personality. She's quick with a smile and she made it a point to be outgoing and meet new people. A few of them were through connections with other students from Brazil. Some of them were from classes she takes, and some were just a group she ran into randomly on campus, said hello and struck up a conversation.
She has played in Florida the past four years, but she said her life had been all about tennis. What she wanted most from college was some balance. A group of friends has provided it off the court, and even on it.
"I loved it. It was super fun having my friends watching and supporting me," she said. "I made that goal for myself. I wanted to be social and make a lot of friends in college. It was super fun for me.
"I want to go have fun and I'm doing a major I love, which is animal sciences, so I'm enjoying it so far."
Having her friends there to support her gives her a bit of energy when she's playing. They keep her composed and on top of her game. In her opening match of singles play in Flight A, she took the fist set from Lisa Kung of Utah State in tight battle, 7-5. Her second-set victory for the sweep was the same score, but anything but a carbon copy.
She fell behind 5-1, fought off a couple of set points and stormed back to win six games in a row.
"They pump me up," she said. "They hold me together; they hold me accountable. Just having my friends around, cheering for me and pumping me up, I found that really motivating and I felt free to play the court because I knew they weren't going to judge me."
In doubles, she paired with Viktoryia Zhadzinskaya, and after an opening bye, they moved into the semifinals with a 6-3 win in Flight A.
The event is an eight-team show, but not every roster is complete, including the hosts. Colorado State had four players watching due to match limitations, as they'll leave after the weekend to take part in the ITA All-American Championships; Wyoming sat a few for the same reason.
For that reason, Ecton and her doubles partner, Sarah Weekley, had a first-round bye, so they played their quarterfinal match right way, posting a 6-3 victory to advance. Weekley is the second doubles partner Ecton has played with so far, both of them younger than her, which she's found fun, and Tran has found helpful.
"It's mentoring. They enjoy having a different partner each time and get to know how they are on the court," Tran said. "She's great in doubles, and I think Sarah is on her way and learning a lot about doubles, because she's not as familiar with it."
Ecton, who played four years before transferring back home, has enjoyed taking on the role. It's not just that she's experienced, she's also proven to be a very strong doubles player throughout her career, so she knows how to blend strengths and can teach her different partners how the chemistry can work.
Besides, new partners give her a different perspective of her teammates and those bonds which are so important. She played with Zhadzinskaya last week, and while she's helping them, she said they've both made it easier on her.
"They both on the court, they both have huge serves, they both have huge ground strokes and they're both good at the net, it's so much fun," she said. "It's fu n for me. I told coach, you're putting me with two of the bigger hitters on the team, so it makes the job easy for me. I get to be at the net and pick up volleys. It might seem like an experience thing because they have less experience under their belt, but they don't play that way."
Having fun is a key for her, especially when she's on her own. In her singles match with Eesha Varma of South Dakota, she found herself in a 4-1 hole the first set. Tran told her to hang in there, mentioning a weakness of her opponent. Ecton, with a sly smile replied, "yes, but I'm giving it back in one."
She showed no stress, and when assistant coach Taylor Hollander told her she had to giggle after losing a tough point, she did. And she also came back and won the first set 7-5, then took the second 6-0.
It's being in the right frame of mind in the moment for her.
"Definitely staying loose and having fun. For me it's a lot of mental," Ecton said. "I know my game is there and I can do it, but I psyche myself out, so having my teammates to joke with me or make me laugh makes it easier. It's remembering to have fun because it's only one year left.
"When I get to serious, I stress myself out and everything goes downhill. You're focused and you're on it, but it's also staying loose and staying on it, playing free more than anybody else."
The first day was threatened by rain in the forecast, but a slight and brief drizzle only stopped the action for about 30 minutes. The first two rounds of doubles and the first of singles made it through to the end, right before the skies opened up to a stronger rain. It was perfect timing, and for a tennis tournament, that's a plus.
For a freshman, the view of perfection can be altered, as it has been for Avelar.
"I had this image that college was perfect. That everything was going to be perfect," she said. "It is actually not. You have to make a lot of sacrifices. Somedays you want to go out with friends, but you can't because you have practice the next morning or you have to study. It's definitely really tough, but I'm glad it's not what I hoped for, because I like the way it is now."
Action picks back up Saturday at 9 a.m., with doubles and singles play in both the championship and consolation brackets.
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