Boulder, Colo. – Senior Rachel Hatley’s (Burleson, Texas) two decisive wins capped off the UNM women’s tennis team’s solid performance on the final day of the Colorado Fall Invite. Three other Lobos also had winning performances as did two doubles pairs. Freshman Maja Kovacek had the best tournament showing for the Lobos when she went on to win the Flight 2 singles finals, beating CU’s Katherine Anne Lutgert on Friday.
In the consolation round of Flight 1, Dominique Reynolds of BYU defeated New Mexico’s Tjasa Suvak (Belca, Slovenia) 6-2, 6-3. Suvak had advanced to the finals on Friday, but was not able to get past Lu Oswald (BYU) and lost in three sets 7-6, 2-6, 7-6.
In other consolation action (Flight 2), Tiffany Robertson defeated Denver’s Barb Kourim 6-2, 6-3. Maja Kovacek (Pula, Croatia) also played in the Flight 2 consolation round, although she had already won the finals in the same flight the day before. Kovacek defeated Tatyana Ugorich, who had played in Flight 3 the previous two days, 6-1, 6-2.
Flight 3 consolation play included sophomore Maria Ruiz-Fabrega (Albuquerque, N.M.) who defeated Maru Altamirano (Denver) 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Rachel Hatley participated in two Flight 4 matches, both of which she won handily. The first match-up was against Lauren Carey. Hatley beat the CU player 6-1, 6-1 and then went on to defeat Denver’s Whitney Flansburg in another solid match 6-2, 6-0.
To conclude the strong Lobo performance, Hatley and Ruiz-Fabrega defeated Kourim/ Altamirano of Denver 8-3 in Flight 1 Doubles action. Suvak and Kovacek ended up even on the day, losing their first match to Schneider/Porter of BYU 8-4. They would better their first result by defeating Sall/Strandemo (CU) 8-4 later on in the day. UNM’s Heidbrink and Robertson also participated in doubles competition, but dropped their match 8-2 to Oswald/Reynolds of BYU.
The Lobo women’s tennis team returns to fall action on Oct. 23 when they travel to Tulsa, Okla. for the Omni Hotels Regional Championships.