Washington State University Athletics
Cougar Tennis Heads to BYU Invitational
September 16, 2015 | Tennis
THIS WEEK: The Cougars continue their fall season as they compete in the 2015 BYU Invitational, Sept. 17-19. Play begins each day at 9:30 a.m. The Cougars will have eight players competing in the tournament: seniors Maria Biryukova, Lize Leenknecht and Trang Huyhn, junior Victoria Matejevic, sophomores Holly Monahan and Donika Bashota and freshman Barbora Michalkova and Aneta Miksovska.
LAST WEEK: At the 2015 Cougar Classic, the Cougars captured both the singles and doubles finals. Bashota captured the singles title defeating Gonzaga's Sophie Whittle, 7-5, 6-4. Leenknecht and Bashota paired up to defeat Gonzaga's Sam Polayes and Sophie Whittle to win the doubles title, 7-6. The Cougars placed three of their four doubles teams in the semifinals, while also having three of the four singles semifinalists.
BYU INVITATIONAL FORMAT: The 2015 BYU Invitational will consist of 32-player singles draw with play-in matches and a 16-team doubles draw with play-in matches. In the doubles flight, Bashota and Leenknecht will be the No. 2 seed, while Huynh and Miksovska will be the No. 4 seed. Also pairing up in the doubles flight are Michalkova and Monahan, along with the duo of Matejevic and Biryukova. In the singles flight, Bashota garnered the No. 3 seed, while Huyhn is seeded No. 4.
BYU INVITATIONAL FIELD: Joining Washington State in the 2015 BYU Invitational field will be Brigham Young, Boise State and Utah State.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2015-16 season the Cougars will have three new faces to go with five returners. The returning roster includes seniors Maria Biryukova and Lize Leenknecht, junior Victoria Matejevic, and sophomores Holly Monahan and Donika Bashota. New to the squad this season are senior Trang Huyhn, who arrives in Pullman after transferring from Troy, and freshmen Barbora Michalkova and Aneta Miksovska.
LAST SEASON IN REVIEW: Washington State finished off dual match play with a 13-12 overall record in 2015. The Cougars finished 11th in a competitive Pac-12 conference that had the top nine teams finishing with national rankings. WSU started the spring season national ranked at No. 52 and remained in the ranking through February. Departed from last year's squad is Elizaveta Luzina (26-22 singles record), number three all-time on WSU career singles victories list, and Nastia Vasyukhina (18-24).
COACH HART: Lisa Hart is in her 13th season as the head coach of Washington State. Hart has accumulated 154 wins over her tenure, registering a 13-12 record last season. In 2012, the Cougars went 19-7 as Hart was awarded the Pac-12 Conference Women's Tennis Coach of the Year award.
Players Mentioned
