COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 13, 2018) – The Wyoming tennis team opened up the 2018 fall season on Thursday at the ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains.
“This was a great start for the team as a whole,” head coach Dean Clower said. “I felt like the upperclassmen were extremely disciplined in all their matches and were great examples for the newcomers. The underclassmen played extremely hard today and took a big step forward in playing the Cowgirl way. We’re excited to get back on the courts again tomorrow and take another step in the right direction.”
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Senior Tessa van Der Ploeg defeated her first opponent of the day, Annaliese County, 6-3, 6-1, followed by a straight set win against Louise-Mare Botes of Idaho State, 6-3, 6-4. Fellow senior Elisa Koonik had a first-round bye and then defeated Rhoda Tanui of Utah State, 6-2, 6-2.
Freshman Ana Fernandez won her first match as a Cowgirl with a three-set win, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 over Linnea Fristam of Montana State, but lost to TJ Fumagali of Air Force, 6-2, 6-1. Fellow freshman Mihaela Kaftanova took her opening match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, against Bronte Murgett of New Mexico. She would drop her second match against Anja Dokic of Boise State, 6-1, 6-4. Junior Ana Royo and freshman Ida Krause also had first-round byes. Royo would fall in her match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, against Emilie Haakansson of Northern Arizona, while Krause lost to Chiara Tomasetti, 6-4, 6-0.
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There were three matches for Wyoming on the doubles side. Koonik and van Der Ploeg, who is the 60th ranked team in the Oracle/ITA Division I rankings, defeated Ruth Copas and Danielle Quevedo of New Mexico, 8-2. Fernandez and Krause dropped their opening match 8-4 against Emily Strande and Dokic of Boise State followed by Kaftanova and Royo with a tough 8-6 loss against Huibre-Mare Botes and Louise-Mare Botes of Idaho State.
Wyoming will return to action tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. MT at the Air Force Tennis Courts.
