Breann Lujan-Halcon
Cowgirl tennis concluded their fall season at the Red and Blue Challenge in Dallas, Texas over the weekend. The SMU Mustangs hosted the three-day tournament.
“This was a good weekend for Cowgirl tennis,” Cowgirls head coach Dean Clower told GoWyo following the tournament. “The players did what we asked and then some. If we continue on this path we will be right in the thick of things come March. A huge thanks to all the Cowgirl fans who made the trip down to Dallas and supported the team.”
Friday the Cowgirls began the tournament facing the Sam Houston State Bearkats at SMU’s tennis complex. Four Cowgirls had successful singles matches versus their Bearkat counterparts.
Sophomore Magdalena Stencel took her victory in a set of three, 4-6,7-5, 6-2. Senior Nastya Tokareva also took a singles point for UW with a 7-5, 7-6 win. Junior Dorottya Jonas had a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ema Barkovic. Wrapping up the singles points for the day junior Miranda Talbert took her victory lap following three sets 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
The Cowgirls concluded the first day of tournament play by taking the doubles point, winning two of the three matches.
“It was good to see the ladies play with the intensity and fire as one single unit,” coach Clower said. “Each player brought it today and it was nice to see. Doubles is getting better but we have much to improve on.”
Saturday, the Cowgirls continued their outing by taking two of the three doubles matches and three singles matches against tournament host SMU.
Victories in doubles came from Cowgirl duos Junior Miranda Talbert and Jonas 6-2, and Stencel and Tokareva 7-6.
Stencel, Jonas and freshman Tessa van Der Ploeg took the singles points for Wyoming against the Mustangs.
“This was another step in the right direction for us,” Coach Clower said. “We are playing better in doubles and can now start working on getting to the next level. In singles, we definitely took more steps towards playing UW tennis. I am proud of how we competed and improved over the last two days.”
Tournament action was wrapped up Sunday against Texas A&M Sunday. Tokareva and Stencel pulled out the only win of the day 6-2 in doubles.
Cowgirl tennis will return to play in January for the Hurricane Invite in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
