Cougars to Compete at Beach Fall Tournament

THIS WEEK: The Washington State women's tennis team travels to Southern California to compete in the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament in Long Beach, Calif. In addition to WSU and host Long Beach State, also competing will be Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, University of Montana, Portland State, Grand Canyon University, UC Irvine and UC Riverside Oct. 6-8 at the Rhodes Tennis Center. The tournament will consist of four singles flight and two doubles flights. Competing for WSU will be Barbora Michalkova, Aneta Miksovska, Tiffany Mylonas and Melisa Ates. Doubles pairs will be Miksovska/Mylonas and Michalkova/Ates.

In the first singles flight Barbora Michalkova will compete against Monika Van de Vondel a junior from CSU Northridge. Within the same flight Tiffany Mylonas will face UC Irvine opponent Flora Amiri. In the second singles flight Aneta Miksovska will face CSU Fullerton sophomore Masako Makiba. Melisa Ates has a BYE on Friday in the third singles flight and will face the winner of Caisey Lee Emery of CSU Fullerton and Arpe Bagumyan from CSU Northridge, in the semifinal round.

In doubles flight one, pair Barbora Michalkova and Melisa Ates will face UC Riverside doubles pair Karla Dulay and Tia Elpusan. Aneta Miksovska and Tiffany Mylonas will compete in doubles flight two against UC Irvine opponents Gillian Parker and Clair Dean.

LAST TIME OUT: The Cougars last played at the UNLV Fall Invitational where each singles and doubles players advanced to the semifinals. Barbora Michalkova, Melisa Ates, and Tiffany Mylonas made it to the Championship round of their respective flights. Aneta Miksovska entered third in No. 2 singles and WSU pair Michalkova and Ates finished third in No. 1 Doubles Draw. The doubles pair of Tiffany Mylonas and Aneta Miksovska won the tournament in the No. 2 Doubles Draw.

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 722.

COUGARS IN ITA RANKINGS: Bayerlova was ranked No. 3 among freshmen/newcomers in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's preseason rankings and junior Tiffany Mylonas was 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: Cougars will travel to Arizona to play in the Wildcat Invitational No. 1 from Oct. 13-15 in Tucson, Arizona.

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 freshmen Michaela Bayerlova had a successful summer and is entering holds a current world ranking of 722 in singles, and achieved a career best 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.

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Players Mentioned

Melisa Ates

Michaela Bayerlova

Barbora Michalkova

Aneta Miksovska

Tiffany Mylonas

Ege Tomey

Guzal Yusupova

Washington State University Athletics