WSU women’s tennis opened the 2020 Spring Season winning 15 out of 24 matches this weekend at the Weinman Foundation Invitational. The tournament took place Thursday through Sunday at the University of Hawai’i Tennis Complex.

This was the sixth time the Cougars have started their spring schedule in Hawaii. Three additional teams were in attendance including Brigham Young University, University of Louisville and Northern Arizona University.

The matches started Thursday and consisted of doubles matches followed by single matches.

Thursday’s games were delayed six hours due to wind and rain.

The invitational began with the Cougars playing in two doubles matches against the University of Hawaii and two more against Northern Arizona University.

Senior Melisa Ates had a 10-1 singles record and 8-1 mark in doubles play. She won the B Flight Singles Title at the Cougar Classic and the Redbird Invite in A Flight Singles.

Sophomore Savanna Ly-Nguyen finished her fall season competing in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in Manila, Philippines. She reached the final round at this tournament winning a silver medal.

Sophomore Hikaru Sato won two doubles titles along with the A Flight singles title at the Cougar Classic. Junior Michaela Bayerlova played in a professional tournament in Kansas, California and Canada.

WSU signed Hania Abouelsaad and Lunda “Fifa” Kumhom over winter break for the 2020-21 season.

Abouelsaad will travel from Alexandria, Egypt to put on a Cougar uniform. According to the WSU athletics website, she was one of the top juniors in Egypt.

Kumhom will travel from Bankkok, Thailand and is one of the top junior recruits in Thailand over the past few years. Kumhom was a member of the 2019 Thailand’s ASEAN School of Games. She also was a reserve on the 2019 Southeast Asian Games team.

Lisa Hart will return for her 17th spring season as head coach for Cougars tennis at Washington State. She finished last season with a 19-11 record and went to the NCAA tournament.

The Cougars return home Saturday at Hollingbery Fieldhouse. The team will play against the University of Idaho at noon and later play Seattle University at 5 p.m.