UW tennis competes at Air Force

by Wyoming Sports.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Wyoming tennis had a busy first day at the Air Force Academy Invite. The Cowgirls competed in five rounds of singles and two rounds of doubles with six other teams including Air Force, University of Tulsa, Colorado State , Northern Colorado, Denver and the Colorado.

“We had a strong showing today,” said UW head coach Kati Gyulai, “We got through the early rounds and we have two doubles teams and one singles in the semifinals. We look to build on today’s success and win some flights tomorrow.”

In the silver doubles flight, Sarah Summerfield and Carly Van Hollen had a strong showing in their first time playing together this season. They opened up with an 8-5 victory over Tiffany Knop and Hannah LaForest (UNC). The duo continued to beat Lauren Strasburger and Caitlin Fluegge (CSU), 8-5. They will play Monica Milewski and Camila Belassi of Colorado on Saturday morning.

UW's Rebecca Berger and Ronnie Spencer suffered a tough 8-3 loss against Tori Arneson and Kirsten Stople (CSU) in the first round, but rebounded against Christine Abayan and Erlyn Rudico (AFA), 8-6.

In their first round of doubles, Wyoming's Jamie Nelson and Carolina Chaix played Madalyn Kern and Michala Hedelund Jensen (CU), winning 8-4. Unfortunately, they fell to Jie Zeng and Yulia Gavenko (Tulsa), 8-0. Also for Wyoming, Brittany DeFelice and Virginia Iwinski had a successful round, with a bye and an 8-2 win over Greer Satherlie and Lauren Mulhern (CSU).

In singles action, Spencer lost to Christiane Pheil (CU), 6-0, 6-1 but came back in the first round of backdraws and won her second match, 6-4, 0-6, 10-5, defeating Kirsten Stople of CSU. Iwinski lost her two matches of the day falling to Rebecca Row (Tulsa) 6-2, 6-1 and Jill Kappel (UNC), 6-4, 6-0.

Summerfield defeated Thalia Diaz-Barriga (TUL) 6-1, 6-1. In the next round, she lost to Monica Milewski (CU) 6-1, 6-0. Berger lost her opening round to Christine Abayan (AFA), 6-3, 6-2 but was successful in the back draws defeating Manuela Santos (UNC), 6-4, 6-2.

Nelson had a good day, as she had a bye in the first round, and defeated Jennifer Whateley (UNC), 6-0, 6-3. Van Hollen did well as she battled against Bhavani Tirumurti (DU), winning 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2, but came up short to Jie Zeng (TUL) 6-4, 6-1. DeFelice was also successful as she defeated Katrina Eromin (AFA), 6-4, 6-4 and Tiffany Knop (UNC), 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

Action continues Saturday at 8 a.m.