Cowgirl tennis had a successful weekend returning to their home crowd with wins over Boise State (13-9) and Utah State (13-9), both 5-2 victories.
“It’s a warm-fuzzy feeling inside,” said Wyoming head coach Dean Clower. “You get to play in front of the best fans in the country. It’s great – it’s a great feeling. I’m so proud of the girls, they got after it. They played some great tennis this weekend. They played hard, they were tough and very, very resilient.”
The Cowgirls entered the weekend of conference play at 1-1 and improved to 3-1 with an overall record of 9-7.
Friday against Boise, the Cowgirls opened their home matches by taking the doubles point to gain an early lead over the Broncos.
In the first slot, senior Veronica “Vera” Popovici and freshman Dorrottya Jonas fell short against BSU’s sophomore Megan LaLone and senior Sandy Vo 8-6.
Juniors Christa Gecheva and Alma Espinosa defeated senior Anissa Bryant-Swift and sophomore Teal Vosburgh 8-7.
Taking the doubles point for Wyoming with an 8-5 win was redshirt freshman Alena Vasileva and junior Silviya Zhelyazkova over senior Morgan Basil and junior Sammie Watson.
Zhelyazkova, who was last in finishing doubles, took the first singles match 6-0, 6-1 against Vosburgh to put Wyoming up 2-0.
The next two matches on the first and fourth court were Bronco wins. Although Boise managed to tie the match, they were the last points of the day for the Broncos.
The Cowgirls swept the last three remaining matches with victories for Jonas (0-6, 7-6), Vasileva (6-3, 6-1) and Espinosa in a set of three 4-6, 6-2, 1-0.
“We’ve been working on tons and tons of details,” said Clower. “We had to get better at the small details and we did that this weekend. We executed much better than we have in the past.”
Sunday, the Cowgirls ended the Aggies season with a 5-2 win.
The Cowgirls lost the doubles point against Utah State but recovered in singles.
Gecheva and Espinosa (7-3) won the only doubles match for Wyoming 8-1.
Longtime Cowgirl Popovici recovered a point for the Cowgirls in a tough match with a set of three 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to close out her season on Senior Day.
Freshman Nina Guensler took the lone singles point for the Aggies in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 triumph over Zhelyazkova.
The second, fourth, fifth and sixth positions were all Cowgirl gains for Jonas, Gecheva, Vasileva and Espinosa, who took out their Aggie counterparts.
In preparation for next Saturday’s match, Clower and the Cowgirls will continue to work hard.
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” said Clower. “We’ll have some solid practices this week, go over some scouting reports and not change a thing.”
The Cowgirls will saddle up to end their conference season in Ft. Collins, Colo. against the Colorado State Rams on Saturday at 2 p.m.
