After a long fall and spring season, all of the hard work from the past year has come down to this.
The University of Wyoming tennis team will head to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. for the 2013 Mountain West Women’s Tennis Championship.
The Cowgirls received the 6th seed in the tournament out of the nine teams competing and will play their first match at 2 p.m. Friday against the 3rd seeded Fresno State Bulldogs. If they win against the Bulldogs they will continue play Saturday against the winner of the match between the 2nd and 7th seeds, the UNLV Rebels and the Air Force Falcons, respectively.
The Cowgirls last played the Bulldogs on April 4. They came out on the losing end to the then 61st ranked Bulldogs, 4-3. It was a tightly contested affair, as the final singles match played on the day determined the victor of the overall match. Junior Veronica Popovici squared off against Fresno State’s Rana Sherif Ahmed in the number one position. Popovici lost the match 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 2-6.
After starting the Mountain West Conference season with two wins against zero losses, the Cowgirls hit a rough patch, losing three in a row and four of six in conference. The losing streak began in Fresno, Calif. against the Bulldogs. Their final MW record is 4-4.
Leading the way in singles play this season for the Cowgirls is Jessica Parizher. The sophomore from Studio City, Calif. has an overall record of 21-13, with a 10-4 record in tournament play and an 11-9 record in duals.
Close behind Parizher is senior Alexandra Kovacs. Kovacs has 18 wins on the season, with 7 and 11 wins in tournament and duals play, respectively. She also has won the highest number of conference matches this season. Her conference record is 7-1 heading into the MW Championships.
In doubles play, the pair of junior Veronica Popovici and senior Symona Synkova has led the way all season long. The duo has logged 23 wins on the season with only eight defeats. They also have a 12-6 record in number one matches, and are 6-1 in the MWC. Popovici and Synkova have helped in singles play as well, winning 16 and 14 matches this season respectively. Both the pairs of Kovacs and senior Sasa Nemcova and Parizher and sophomore Silviya Zhelyazkova are 5-2 in conference play this season.
