THIS WEEK: The Cougars begin their 2019 spring season at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational, Jan. 3-5, hosted by the University of Hawaii. The Rainbow Wahine will include WSU, host Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific in a non-team scoring event. Play will begin Thursday at Noon PT and will consist of doubles first, then singles. The format will be an individual event, with no team scores kept. The Cougars will have seven players competing in the tournament: seniors Aneta Miksovska and Tiffany Mylonas, juniors Melisa Ates, Jovana Knezevic and Ege Tomey, sophomore Michaela Bayerlova and freshmen Hikaru Sato, Yang Lee and Savanna Ly-Nguyen.
 
FALL SEASON RECAP: Washington State competed in two fall tournaments, hosting the Cougar Classic and traveling to California for the Long Beach Invitational. Senior Tiffany Mylonas finished the fall with an 8-0 record, capturing the top singles and doubles flights at both events. Mylonas teamed with Hikaru Sato in both tournaments. Melisa Ates also won a pair of flight titles, going 8-0 during the fall in singles. Aneta Miksovska and Yang Lee each finished the fall with identical 7-1 singles records, while Hikaru Sato went 5-1 and Ege Tomey was 4-4.
 
UP NEXT: Washington State begins its dual season by hosting the University of Idaho, Saturday, Jan. 12 at Noon from Hollingbery Fieldhouse.
 
BAYERLOVA HAS ANOTHER STRONG FALL SEASON: Sophomore 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.
 
COUGARS SIGN SAVANNA LY-NGUYEN TO NLI: Washington State University Head Tennis Coach Lisa Hart announced Tuesday that 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.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2018-19 season the Cougars will have four new players to accompany the five returners. The returning roster consists of seniors Aneta Miksovska and Tiffany Mylonas, along with juniors Melisa Ates and Ege Tomey, and sophomore Michaela Bayerlova. Newcomers include junior transfer Jovana Knezevic along with freshmen Yang Lee, Savanna Ly-Nguyen and Hikaro Sato.
 
COACH HART: Lisa Hart is in her 16th season as the head coach at Washington State. Hart has accumulated 1202 wins over her tenure, finishing the last season with a 21-7 record.