WSU tennis began the new year and their spring season by attending the Weinman Foundation Invitational hosted at University of Hawaii.

The Cougs faced fierce competition in Hawaii, No. 12 California, No. 14 USC and No. 22 Iowa State. 

As a whole, the team struggled to get anything going, finishing with eight wins in 23 singles matches and two wins in 12 doubles matches. 

The highlights were Elyse Tse, the only singles competitor to win multiple matches and the tandems of Maxine Murphy and Eva Alvarez Sande and Stefaniia Mikhailova and Hania Abouelsaad for winning one of their doubles matches, respectively. 

WSU played against Hawaii and California in both singles and doubles competitions on the first day, where Alvarez Sande, Tse and Yang Lee emerged victorious in singles action. In all eight matches played in singles, not one-second match had the loser take more than two games. 

As for doubles action, the team went winless on day one, but the duo of Tse and Lee took their competition of Nikola Homolkova and Klara Novakova of Hawaii deep before falling 7-6 (5). 

On the second day of play, the Cougs took on Iowa State and Hawaii and only came away with two wins in singles action.

Doubles’ action disappointed once again, as the team went winless in four matches. In the lone competitive series, Murphy and Alvarez Sande lost 7-5 to Thasaporn Naklo and Anna Supapitch Kuearum of Iowa State. 

On the final day of competition, the Cougs broke through and won two doubles matches. Murphy and Alvarez Sande took down their opposition 6-3 and Mikhailova and Abouelsaad won 6-4 in their match. 

Overall, it was the best day of the invitational for the team, as three Cougs won their singles matches and two others took it to a third set. 

Fifa Kumhom won her match 6-4, 7-5, Tse overcame a first-set loss and won 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 and Mikhailova came out on top 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. 

In the two losses that went the distance, both WSU players won the first set but did not close out the win. Lee fell after a hard-fought battle by a final line of 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, and Alvarez Sande lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. 

Next up for the Cougs is the team hosting Montana at 10 a.m. Friday at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse in Pullman.