NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The BYU women's tennis team clinched six singles wins and four doubles wins on the first day of the CSUN Fall Invitational on Friday.
“We had some tough competition today with 20-30 mph winds most of the day,” BYU women’s tennis head coach Holly Parkinson Hasler said. “I was proud of the girls for focusing on what they could control and although it may not have been the prettiest tennis, they played scrappy and fought hard.”
In the Singles A draw, Madeline Almeida defeated UC Santa Barbara’s Juliana Valero 6-3, 7-5. Meanwhile, Polina Malykh claimed a commanding 6-2, 6-2 victory against Lalita Devarakonda from Long Beach.
In the Singles B draw, Samantha Smith took the third singles win of the day, 7-5, 6-3, against Grand Canyon University’s Martina Lo Pumo. Katie Fitt won a close match against Azusa Pacific’s April Wong 7-6, 7-6 and Taylah Beckman beat Eira Tobrand from Cal State Fullerton 6-2, 6-4. Hailey Krey, in her first match as a Cougar, took a win in the Singles G draw against Rubina Copano 6-1, 4-6, 6-0.
The Cougars also excelled in the Doubles B and C draws. Beckman and Smith took two back-to-back wins against Grand Canyon and San Jose State. They defeated Emilia Occhipinti and Celina Buhr, 6-2, and Tamara Culibrk and Laura Malsert, 6-2.
Almeida and Fitt, who played in the Doubles C draw, also took two victories. They dominated in their match against Azusa Pacific’s Kara Hinton and Wagner, 6-1, and finished strong, 6-3, against UC Riverside’s Mahli Silpachai and Hanh Pham.
BYU suffered two tough losses in singles today as Stephanie Yamada from UC Santa Barbara defeated Abramyan 6-1, 6-0 in the Singles A draw and Emma Roenholt from Cal State Northridge beat freshman Morgan Hall 6-1, 6-1.
Two Cougar teams fell short in doubles play as well. Abramyan and Malykh took a loss in the Doubles A draw against Long Beach’s Emma Bardet and Lalita Devarakonda, 3-6 as well as in the next round to UC Santa Barbara’s Stephanie Yamada and Dominika Paterova, 0-6. In the Doubles E draw, new BYU team Hall and Krey relinquished two losses. In a close match, Biola University’s Sophia Lee and Ines Diaz claimed the victory, 6-4. In Hall and Krey’s second match, Autm Prudhomme and Celia Morel from Grand Canyon came out on top, 6-1.
The Cougars will return to the courts starting Saturday at 12:30pm for singles and at 4:00pm for doubles. Matches will take place at the Matador Tennis Complex at CSUN.