Cowgirls tennis overcame a tough day on the courts and turned up the heat in the final day of competition at the Red and Blue Challenge in Dallas. The tournament was the final outing of the fall season for the Cowgirls until January.
“We can’t get down early and wait to make adjustments,” Cowgirls head coach Dean Clower told gowyo.com. “Overall, we have improved and come a long way over the fall.”
The Cowgirls opened the Red and Blue Challenge against the SMU Mustangs. In a series of tough matches, Wyoming took two of the nine points.
Starting in doubles, the Cowgirls won one of the four matches. Senior Christa Gecheva and redshirt freshman Magdalena Stencel took the only doubles point for Wyoming. In a 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 victory over SMU’s sophomore duo Anna Kate Anderson and Macie Elliott.
In singles, the lone point for Wyoming came from Junior Nastya Tokareva. Tokareva beat her SMU opponent junior Vaszilisza Bulgakova 7-6, 7-5.
“We did a lot of things well today and there are still some that need to be corrected,” coach Clower said.
Saturday the Cowgirls returned to play, this time against the Wichita State Shockers. The Shockers took all eight of their matches against Wyoming, not allowing the Cowgirls any gains on the scoreboard.
In doubles action the Cowgirls were unable to find their stride and struggled against the Shockers. Wichita State defeated all four doubles team from Wyoming.
Sophomore Dorottya Jonas, took one set over Wichita State’s freshman Giulia Guidetti 6-4 in singles play. Guidetti took the next round 7-6, forcing a third set that she also won 6-3.
Stencel, Tokareva and Gecheva all fell to the Shockers in their singles play as well.
Sunday the Cowgirls returned to the Red and Blue Tournament with a very different energy than the previous days of competition.
Wyoming faced the South Alabama Jaguars on Sunday. The Cowgirls took six of the nine points against the Jaguars and ended the weekend on a high note.
“Today was by far the best we have played all fall,” head coach Dean Clower said.
In doubles the Cowgirls only dropped one match to the Jaguars and took the other three.
Doubles pair Tokareva and senior Jessica Parizher defeated senior Mary Angela Martin and junior Michaela Meszarosova 8-3 to take the first point for Wyoming.
In the number three slot, Jonas and freshman Cecilia Mercier proved victorious with an 8-4 victory over South Alabama juniors Paula Sanchez and Cinta Maria Papke.
Closing out doubles play were Cowgirls Gecheva and Jonas who earned a victory in a set of three 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 over Senior Emily Newton and Sanchez.
In lost the doubles round, Sanchez and sophomore Laura Valkova got the upper hand on Gecheva and Stencel 8-2 in the number one slot.
It continued to be a successful outing for the Cowgirls in singles against the Jaguars.
Only dropping two matches, Wyoming won three of the singles match ups in the first, second and fourth slot.
Kicking off the action, Stencel earned straight sets over Valkova 6-4, 6-4. Following in the second slot Tokareva won in another back-to-back set against Papke 7-6, 7-5.
Cowgirls senior Silviya Zhelyazkova dropped her first set against Meszarosova 3-6. Zhelyazkova picked it back up and beat Meszarosova 6-4, 6-1 to take the matchup.
“It was good to see the players come together and put into play a lot of things we’ve been working on,” Coach Clower said. “I hope this helps us get prepared for the spring.”
Parizher took a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 loss, as did Mercier (6-3, 6-2) in their singles matches.
