The University of Wyoming women’s tennis team (6-6) found their footing on the road in a 4-0 win over the Tulane Green Wave (4-17) to end their non-conference play.
“This was a good way to finish out our non-conference schedule,” Wyoming head coach Dean Clower told gowyo.com. “The players have been working very hard and have improved tremendously over the past six weeks. We will take a couple days to get healthy and be ready for the conference part of our season.”
The Cowgirls began the day by taking the doubles point early, winning two of the three matches.
Tulane, who has been playing with a roster of 5, defaulted the third doubles match unable to fill the sixth spot. Redshirt freshmen Alena Vasileva and junior Silviya Zhelyazkova won by default.
Freshmen Dorottya Jonas and senior Veronica Popovici won the second doubles match 8-3 against Tulane’s sophomore pair Jacqui Katz and Ipek Birol.
The last in doubles was junior duo Christa Gecheva and Alma Espinosa, whose game went unfinished versus sophomore Meredith Maltby and junior Emily Dvorak. The Cowgirls were leading Tulane 5-3 before the match was called when Popovici and Jonas secured the point for Wyoming.
“We came out with good energy and we jumped on them,” said Jonas “We didn’t let them get into the game after we won the doubles point.”
In singles, Tulane forfeited the sixth position; Espinosa took the point to put Wyoming up 2-0.
The next point for Wyoming was brought home by Vasileva in the number five slot with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Emily Dvorak.
In the number four slot, Gecehva took down Tulane’s Margaux Hyman, 6-1, 6-4 for the victory.
Wyoming only needed four points to pull the win over Tulane. The last three matches went unfinished after Gecheva pulled the winning point.
“It was a good win before conference,” said Vasileva. “I think we all feel more confident. We want to show all this energy we have had in these last games and practice and go out there and do our best”
Popivici and Jonas both won the first match of their singles over Ipek Birol (6-4) and Jacqui Katz (6-2). Popivici was winning her second match 4-1 when the games were called. Zhelyazkova lost the first match of her singles 3-6 to Meredith Maltby, but the game went uncompleted. Both Jonas and Zhelyazkova did not play a second match.
The Cowgirls will now prepare to enter conference play this weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo. where they will face Air Force on Friday at 2 p.m., followed by a game in New Mexico on Sunday.
