Hoppe/Jhang move onto Round of 16 at Women’s ITA Regionals in Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Leonie Hoppe and Katherine Jhang, both transfers, showed on Thursday they they might be UNM’s top doubles pairing as they moved into the Round of 16 with an 8-6 win over Colorado State’s Radka Buzkova and Sarka Richterova, the tournament’s No. 4 seed.

The win highlighted Day 2 of the ITA Mountain Region Championships, hosted by UNLV.

The win knocked out the No. 4 seeds in the tournament, and it moved the duo into a Round of 16 matchup with UNLV’s Cindy Hu and Coco Zhao.  For Hoppe and Jhang, it left them as the last Lobo pairing left in doubles as Maud Vanderputte and Hsuan Huang dropped a Round of 32 match to Boise State’s Pauline Ernstberger and Holly Stewart.

Jhang also had a solid showing in singles, advancing to the Round of 16.  She opened with 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 win over Olivia Oosterbaan of Montana, and then followed that up with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 comeback win over the No. 9 seed Sydney Fitch of Air Force.  That put Jhang against the tournament’s top seed Molly Helgesson, and it was Helgesson on her home court who ended Jhang’s run with a straight set 6-4, 6-4 win.

Sarah O’Connor was the only other Lobo in the main singles draw, but she lost her opening match 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 to BYU’s Wing Ka Lin.

In the Flight 2 draw, Hsuan Huang advanced to the quarterfinals.  First she took out Colorado State’s Ky Ecton 5-0 with Ecton retiring due to injury.  From there, she defeated Xenia de Luna of BYU 6-4, 6-3, and then in the Round of 16, she won 6-1, 6-2 over Weber State’s Dylan Lofie.

Huang will play in the quarters against Indya Nespor of Utah State for a semifinal berth.

Two other Lobos got to the Round of 16 in Vanderputte and Sofia Taborga.  Taborga won her opener 7-5, 6-3 over Avery Pope of BYU, and then followed with an easy 6-2, 6-1 win over J.J. Chen of Montana State.  She missed out on a quarterfinal berth when she fell 6-1, 6-2 to Coco Zhao of UNLV.

Vanderputte opened with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Yangpingan Li of Weber State, and then she won her Round of 32 match against Maria Goheen of Montana, winning 6-3, 6-0.  She also missed a quarterfinal berth, falling 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 to Yijia Jiao of BYU.

Satoho Toriumi picked up an opening round win, taking a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 decision over Andrea Le of Air Force before losing to CSU’s Sarah Weekley 6-4, 6-3.

Leonie Hoppe lost her opener to Ava Neyestani of Northern Arizona 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.  Action continues through Sunday in Las Vegas.