United Athletic Conference

The 2019 WAC Men's and Women's Tennis Tournaments will be hosted by Kansas City on April 24-26 in Kansas City, Mo. All six teams will compete in the Tournament as the first round will be No. 4 seed against No. 5 seed while the No. 3 seed takes on the No. 6 seed. No. 1 and No. 2 seeds earn a bye and a ticket straight to the semifinals. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the WAC representative. The reigning tournament champion is NM State as they defeated Grand Canyon 4-3 in the Championship match last year.

 

Grand Canyon traveled to San Diego to compete in the ITA Southwest Regional from Oct. 17-21. The Lopes were led by Natasha Puehse as she collected two wins to advance to the round of 16 in the 128-player singles draw. After earning a bye in the round of 128, Puehse defeated San Diego's Maria Tryina 6-2, 6-3. She then took out CSUN's Ekaterina Repina 6-2, 6-3 to move on to the quarterfinals. The team of Puehse and Jana Weiss picked up the only GCU doubles win as they conquered Siobhan Anderson and Nevada Apollo of Loyola Marymount (8-4).

 

The Lopes hosted the GCU Invitational in November where they took on Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado. In singles competition, Celina Buhr, Ludovica Infantino and Puehse each went 2-0 at the hidden dual. On the doubles side, the Lopes tallied three wins from three duos. Infantino and Martina Lo Pumo defeated Sarina Chhabra and Madison Wolfe of Northern Colorado (6-4). The team of Celia Morel and Autum Prudhomme defeated Natalie Stanton and Elisabeth Walsh of Northern Colorado (6-1). On day two, Weiss and Puehse conquered Synclair Larson and Sandra Keta of Northern Colorado (6-3).

 

The Kansas City women competed at the ITA Central Regional in October. Riddhi Sharma and Yana Grechkina both played in the main draw singles bracket, but fell in the round of 128. Grechkina also teamed up with Michela Xibila to compete in the doubles draw. The duo fell to a Wichita State team 8-6 in the initial round.

 

The NM State women's team took to the courts at the Stetson Invitational in early November. On day one, Bella Nguyen defeated Barry's Qianxin Kong 7-5, 3-6, 10-8. Day two saw the Aggies earned five wins as Nguyen, Harsha Challa, Chloe Gavino, Gavi Kalaga and Lucija Josipovic all were victorious. NM State went a perfect six-for-six in singles play on the final day of the invite. Neus Torregrosa and Nguyen also added the lone Aggie doubles win of the third day as they defeated Milwaukee.

 

The Redhawk women traveled to Pullman, Wash. to compete in the WSU Cougar Classic in October. The sophomore team of Martina Asciuto and Jillian Rasmussuen led the way for Seattle U as they won the consolation bracket of the Gray Doubles Flight. The duo defeated Idaho's Nicole Horacek and Marta Magalhaes 6-3 in the final. In singles play, SU was led by Alisa Sabotic as she defeated Montana State's Jieyi Chen (6-4, 4-6, 6-3) in the Cougar Singles Flight. Both Peggy Rooke and Hannah Gianan advanced to the Crimson Singles Consolation Semifinals, both collecting victories over Montana State participants.

 

Seattle U also competed in the ITA Northwest Regional in October where freshman Jade Lancaster turned in a performance no other Redhawk ever had. Lancaster was able to advance to the round of 32 at the regionals, marking the first time in school history a Redhawk has made it past the round of 64. She earned victories over Claire Bouquet of Cal Poly (6-1, 0-6, 7-5) and Pacific's Amaya Faith Lopez-Clay (6-3, 7-5).

 

The Vaquero women's tennis team competed at the Ragin' Cajuns Hidden Dual, the ITA Texas Regionals and the Bearkat Invitational in Ocotber. At the Ragin' Cajuns Hidden Dual, Katarina Sasaroga picked up the first of three singles wins as UTRGV took on Louisiana while Ana Platisa and Valeria Montero picked up singles wins over Louisiana Tech. Sasaroga and Sandra Putz teamed up to earn the only doubles win for UTRGV as they defeated Floriane Picaut and Dana Radovanovic of Louisiana 7-6(5).

 

At the ITA Regionals, Sasaroga and Putz were able to earna round of 64 win as they took down Texas State's duo of Andrea Fuchs and Alyssa Zayat 8-6. On the singles side, Sasaroga and Kristyna Mamicova both advanced to the round of 64. Sasaroga defeated Sam Houston State's Sofia Muricia while Mamicova defeated Sophie Omoworare of UTSA.

 

The Vaqueros got a solid showing from Putz at the Bearkat Invitational to close out the month. Putz defeated Texas State's Renata Gonzalez and Toby Lewis in back-to-back matches to advance to the Flight C final. In the final, Putz was able to take down Momoko Yoshimura of Tyler Junior College 6-7(5), 6-1, 10-1 to win the Flight C Singles Championship.

 

The 2020 Tennis National Championships will take place in Stillwater, Okla. at the Michael & Anne Greenwood Tennis Center on the Oklahoma State campus.

 

May 14-23 

Location: Winston Salem, N.C

Host: Wake Forest