Women’s tennis wraps up the fall season in California

Elizaveta+Luzina+returns+the+ball+during+the+ITA+Northwest+Regionals+in+Stanford%2C+Calif.%2C+Oct.+12%2C+2014.

Elizaveta Luzina returns the ball during the ITA Northwest Regionals in Stanford, Calif., Oct. 12, 2014.

From staff reports

The WSU women’s tennis team called their fall season a wrap after this weekend’s ITA Northwest Regional.

Players participated in a singles and doubles draw. The singles consisted of 128 players and the doubles of 64 pairs. There were also consolation draws for those knocked out early on.

The Cougars’ strongest performances were registered by the doubles pairings of senior Elizaveta Luzina and junior Lize Leenknecht, and sophomore Victoria Matejevic and freshman Donika Bashota. Both duos made it to the third round of the draw before being eliminated.

In the fourth round both pairs were defeated by players from the University of California. The top seeded duo in the tournament, Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr defeated Bashota and Matejevic 8-3. In a closer match, the third seeded partnership of Klara Fabikova and Zsofi Susanyi, knocked out Luzina and Leenknecht 8-5.

In singles play the Cougars advanced three competitors to the third round of the tournament. Luzina, Bashota, and junior Maria Biryukova all played themselves into the round of 32. Luzina was seeded No. 11 in the singles draw, and was the only Cougar who received a seed for the tournament.

Luzina won the first set of her third round matchup before dropping the next two against Santa Clara sophomore Delphine Rouvillois. The sophomore did not advance past the next round as she fell to California’s Manasse 6-2 6-1.

Bashota and Biryukova both faced seeded players from Stanford in their third round matches. Birukova fought back to win the middle set of her match but eventually fell 6-2 5-7 6-1 to the No. 14 seed in Ellen Tsay. Bashota faced the second seeded player, and was dismissed 6-3 6-0 by sophomore Carol Zhao.

Luzina made WSU history over the weekend, as she got closer to the all-time singles wins record. She passed Ekaterina Burduli to take the fourth spot on the list with 91 singles victories over the course of her career.

On the first day of action Matejevic and freshman Nastia Vasyukhina claimed first round victories in the singles draw before losing in the second round.

The ITA Regional Championships is the Cougs final tournament of the fall season. Players will be given a week off from tennis before they begin offseason workouts in preparation for the spring season. The team will begin play again in January.

Reporting by Chet Broberg