CU Invitational Box Score | NMSU Invitational Box Score | 2016-17 Season Statistics
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For new head coach Stephanie Wooten-Quijada and assistant coach Colby Meeks, the Fall tennis schedule of individual events is about getting in good competition, and more importantly, learning about the student-athletes that make up the team. After three tournaments, the guess is they are feel pretty good about the situation.
Over the weekend, the Lobos split their team over two tournaments, and picked up two singles titles, a consolation singles championship, a runner-up finish in doubles, and a combined record in singles of 15-5 and a doubles mark of 9-3.
Winning titles over the weekend were Rachana Bhat, who won four matches to win her bracket at the CU Invitational, and freshman Diana Wong, who won three in winning her bracket at the NMSU Invitational. Fellow freshman Cassie Chung won her consolation title in her bracket as well. Wong and Chung teamed in doubles to finish third at NMSU, while Ruth Copas teamed with New Mexico State’s Eli Arnoudova to finish second in doubles (both players had injured partners so they teamed together and went 2-1).
The four wins for Bhat moved her to six for the season, and 80 for her career and she continues to move up the UNM all-time list. She is now tied with Michelle Heidbrink for ninth place with 80 career wins. Bhat opened her tournament with a straight set with over Madison Porter of Colorado State 6-3, 6-3 before needing three sets in both the quarters and the semis. First she took down Porter’s teammate Sandra Keta 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 and the Georgetown’s Daphne de Chatellus 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, winning the tiebreak to advance to the finals. There she made relatively quick work of the No. 3 seed Kyra Wojcik of Colorado 6-1, 6-4 to win the title.
She nearly had to fave her own teammate in that championship match as Emily Olivier, seeded No. 1, earned a first round bye before beating beating Celine Voss of Colorado State 6-2, 6-2. An all UNM affair wasn’t meant to be as Wojcik took her out 6-3, 6-2, setting up the Bhat/Wojcik final.
In the other bracket of 16 at Colorado, Dominique Dulski and Ludivine Burguiere each won round of 16 matches before losing in the quarters. Dulski defeated Risa Nakagawa of Georgetown in a tense three-setter after dropping a tiebreaker in the first 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, but she couldn’t get past No. 1 seed Nuria Ormeno Ruiz of Colorado, losing 6-1, 6-3. Burguiere defeated CSU’s Alyssa Grijalua 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 but lost to Sara Swift of Georgetown 6-2, 6-3.
In doubles at CU, all four players played three matches, one each with three different partners, with Olivier and Burgiere going 3-0 each, and Dulski and Bhat going 2-1.
In Las Cruces, where UNM had two freshmen and a sophomore going, results were still terrific, as the three combined for an 8-2 singles mark and a 4-2 doubles count. The leader was Wong, who waltex through the tournament, taking over players from Tarleton State, Grand Canyon and UTEP in winning the title without dropping a single set. In the final, she defeated Lois Wagenvoort of UTEP 7-5, 6-2. Wagenvoort defeated Cassie Chung in the opening round 6-4, 0-6, 7-5, but Chung rebounded nicely, winning her next two to take the consolation bracket title.
Ruth Copas was in a different bracket, winning her round of 16 match over Western New Mexico’s Annely Heinze 6-1, 6-0 before losing in the quarterfinals to Grand Canyon’s Susie Baklini 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. Copas than won her next two in the consolation bracket to finish 3-1.
In doubles, Wong/Chung earned a 8-4 win in the quarterfinals before Grand Canyon’s Baklini again took out a Lobo, teamming with Tatum Prudhomme for a 8-1 defeat of Wong/Chung. They however bounced back in the third place match with a 9-7 win over Ashleigh Elward and Erika Richarme of Tarleton State.
Copas then advanced to the finals in doubles in her bracket, teamming with NMSU’s Eli Arnoudova to get to the finals, where they faced off against a different NMSU doubles team, creating the odd site of three identical NMSU outfits around Copas’ lone Lobo kit. While Copas couldn’t get the title, her overall tournament of five wins and just two loses bodes well for UNM.
UNM next heads to Arizona and the WIldcat Invitational in Tucson.