Cougars Head to Desert for Arizona Fall Invitational

THIS WEEK: The Cougars travel to Tucson, Ariz. to compete in the Wildcat Invitational, Oct. 13-15. Play will begin Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center and will consist of three singles flights and two doubles. The Cougars will have seven players competing in the tournament: senior Barbora Michalkova, juniors Aneta Miksovska and Tiffany Mylonas, sophomores Melisa Ates, Guzal Yusupova, and Ege Tomey, and freshmen Michaela Bayerlova.

WILDCAT INVITATIONAL DRAWS SET: Bayerlova, Mylonas and Yusupova will compete in the No. 1 singles draw. In the second singles flight Michalkova, Ates and Miksovska will begin play Friday. In the final singles flight competing for WSU will be Tomey. The pair of Michalkova and Ates and the second doubles team of Yusupova and Bayerlova will play in the No. 1 doubles flight. At No. 2 doubles, Miksovska and Mylonas will compete together, and Tomey will be paired with Marquette's Isabella Franks.

WILDCAT INVITATIONAL FIELD: Joining WSU in the Wildcat Invitational tournament will be host Arizona, alongside New Mexico, Arizona Christian and Marquette.

LAST TIME OUT: The Cougars last played at the Beach Fall Tournament in Long Beach, Calif., where all singles and doubles players advanced to the semifinals. Tiffany Mylonas and Anetka Miksovska captured the No. 1 and 2 singles titles, respectively. The duo then paired together to reach the championship match of the No. 2 doubles flight.

BAYERLOVA CAPTURES TITLE AT ITF CHARLESTON: Freshman Michaela Bayerlova gained her second career title at the ITF Charleston Tournament on Oct. 1. Seeded No. 5, she defeated No. 1 seed Montserrat Gonzalez in the championship match, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Gonzalez entered the tournament with a singles world ranking of 438. With Bayerlova's victory, her world ranking now stands at 625.

COUGARS IN ITA RANKINGS: Bayerlova was ranked No. 3 among freshmen/newcomers in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's preseason rankings and junior Tiffany Mylonaswas ranked No. 90 in the ITA preseason singles poll. Bayerlova is the first Cougar to receive this title since the ranking began in the fall of 2010. Mylonas is WSU's most recent player to be ranked for preseason singles since junior Elizaveta Luzina in 2014.

UP NEXT: The Cougars fall schedule concludes at the Arizona Wildcat Fall Invitational.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2017-18 season, the Cougars will have two new players to accompany the five returners. The returning roster consists of senior Barbora Michalkova, junior Aneta Miksovska, and sophomores Melisa Ates and Ege Tomey and Guzal Yusupova. The returning players will be joined by junior Tiffany Mylonas and freshman Michaela Bayerlova.

LAST SEASON IN REVIEW: Guzal Yusupova finished the 2017 spring season with an 18-8 singles record and a team best 5-2 record in Pac-12 play. Aneta Miksovska finished last season with a 19-10 singles record and had back-to-back wins over nationally ranked players from ASU and Arizona. Cougar freshman Michaela Bayerlova had a successful summer achieving a career-best world ranking of 583 during the summer.

COACH HART: Lisa Hart is entering her 15th season as the head coach at Washington State. Hart has accumulated 181 wins over her tenure, finishing the last season with a 10-16 record.

Washington State University Athletics

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