BOULDERS – Rixt van der Werff, a freshman from Groningen, Netherlands, has signed her national letter of intent to play tennis at the University of Colorado, head coach Anthony Pham announced Monday.

Van der Werff comes to Boulder as a senior freshman with plenty of experience playing high-level tennis. She is currently ranked No. 20 in the Netherlands. While she was making a name for herself on the tennis scene, she also enjoyed early success, winning the Dutch U16 doubles championship and finishing second in the singles championship. Following that success, she held the nation’s No. 1 spot as the best player under 16.

Over time, she collected more and more awards, won several junior titles of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and also landed in many national senior rankings.

“We are thrilled to have Rixt join our Buff tennis family,” Pham said at the signing. “She has a strong character, works incredibly hard and loves tennis. She is equally excited to be a Buff player and to continue to help take our program to new heights. We are confident she will have a great impact on our team on and off the court and represent us well in the community. Buff fans will really enjoy watching her compete!”

She will join a veteran team that finished the 2023-24 season ranked No. 71 in the final ITA poll. After a second-place finish in the NIT, the Buffs lose three players from last year’s squad. Van der Werff is expected to join the Buffs’ freshman class in the fall, along with Lera Alexin.

Van der Werff is only the third player from the Netherlands in the program’s history, after Julyette Steur in 2015 and Fleur Eggink in 2021.