THIS WEEK:Â The Cougars open their 2019 dual match season by hosting Idaho and Eastern Washington Saturday at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse. The Cougars face Idaho at Noon followed by Eastern Washington at 5 p.m. Â
Â
LAST TIME OUT:Â The Cougars begin their 2019 spring season at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational, Jan. 3-5, hosted by the University of Hawaii. In the non-team scoring event, Washington State went 18-4 in singles play and 6-6 in doubles action, all against the University of Hawaii.
UP NEXT:Â Washington State travels to Missoula, Mont. for a pair of dual matches Friday, Jan. 18, followed by a Sunday meeting against Michigan State in Missoula.
Â
MIKSOVSKA CLIMBING CAREER WINS LIST:Â Cougar senior Miksovska enters the week with 83 career victories, eighth on the all-time wins list. Three players, Erica Perkins, Andjela Kankaras and Maria Biryukova, are tied for sixth with 87 victories, while former Cougar player and assistant coach, Eka Burduli, is fifth with 90 career wins.
Â
FALL SEASON RECAP:Â Washington State competed in two fall tournaments, hosting the Cougar Classic and traveling to California for the Long Beach Invitational. SeniorÂ
Tiffany Mylonas finished the fall with an 8-0 record, capturing the top singles and doubles flights at both events. Mylonas teamed withÂ
Hikaru Sato in both tournaments.Â
Melisa Ates also won a pair of flight titles, going 8-0 during the fall in singles.Â
Aneta Miksovska andÂ
Yang Lee each finished the fall with identical 7-1 singles records, whileÂ
Hikaru Sato went 5-1 andÂ
Ege Tomey was 4-4.
Â
BAYERLOVA HAS ANOTHER STRONG FALL SEASON:Â SophomoreÂ
Michaela Bayerlova played in two professional tournament during the fall, highlighted by reaching the final of the $15,000 ITF Hilton Head event. Following the tournament, Bayerlova saw her world ranking rise to No. 600. She moved on to the $25,000 ITF Charleston tournament, winning her first-round match before falling to the event's top seed, Reix Sherazad of France, ranked No. 293, in the second round. Bayerlova began the fall season at the ITA/Oracle Master's, her only collegiate event of the fall. After posting wins in her first two rounds, both against nationally-ranked players, Bayerlova fell to Pepperdine's Evgeniya Levashova, ranked No. 41 nationally, in the quarterfinals. Bayerlova and Baylor's Sven Lah also reached the championship match in the mixed doubles draw. Bayerlova enters the spring season with an ITA singles ranking of 83, after finishing the 2018 season at 29.
Â
COUGARS SIGN SAVANNA LY-NGUYEN TO NLI: Washington State University Head Tennis CoachÂ
Lisa Hart announced Tuesday thatÂ
Savanna Ly-Nguyen has signed a national letter of intent to join the Cougar tennis program and will enroll at WSU in January 2019. Ly-Nguyen, a native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, has been one of the top juniors in her Canadian province throughout her career. She finished fifth at the U18 Indoor Provincials and U18 Outdoor Tennis Nationals in 2015, and was a doubles semifinalist at the U18 Indoor and Outdoor National Championships in 2016. She also finished fourth in the U18 Nationals in 2017.
Â
ROSTER BREAKDOWN:Â For the 2018-19 season the Cougars will have four new players to accompany the five returners. The returning roster consists of seniorsÂ
Aneta Miksovska andÂ
Tiffany Mylonas, along with juniorsÂ
Melisa Ates andÂ
Ege Tomey, and sophomoreÂ
Michaela Bayerlova. Newcomers include junior transferÂ
Jovana Knezevic along with freshmenÂ
Yang Lee,Â
Savanna Ly-Nguyen and Hikaro Sato.
Â
COACH HART: Lisa Hart is in her 16th season as the head coach at Washington State. Hart has accumulated 202 wins over her tenure, finishing the last season with a 21-7 record.
Â