ABOUT THE HUSKIES Connecticut comes into Houston on Friday with a 5-3 record, winning its latest match against Rutgers 5-2. The Huskies are led by senior Yelyzaveta Pletnyeva who boasts a 6-2 singles record and is undefeated in doubles this season. UConn is undefeated at home but has a 1-3 record when playing on the road.
ABOUT THE DEMONS The Lady Demons will play UConn in Houston on Saturday before playing the Cougars on Sunday. Their last match was a 5-2 win against Texas State on Monday. Northwestern State holds a 3-4 record prior to playing UConn on Saturday. The Lady Demon’s star player this season has been junior Polina Mutel, who holds a 4-2 record in singles this spring season.
The Houston Cougar Women’s Tennis team won their first American Athletic Conference matchup of the season 5-2 over UConn at the Barbara Wallace Winston Tennis Facility, on Friday. With the win, Houston moves to 9-1 on the season.
Sveva Mazzari and Tsveta Dimitrova raced to a 6-2 doubles win over Yelyzavet Pletnyeva and Cassie Chung to start the day off strong for the Cougars. The duo entered ranked No. 54 on the latest ITA/Oracle Rankings, and this win puts them at 7-1 on the spring season when playing together in doubles. Lauren Alter and Alison Mills followed suit with a 6-2 win as well, clinching the doubles point for Houston.
Constandena Nicolaou and Ana Glumac’s match was stopped early due to the Cougars clinching the doubles point. They led 5-2 and were a few points from the victory.
Lauren Alter took the first singles win of the day against Zaina Zaki 6-2, 6-1. She continued her dominance by moving to 9-1 in singles on the season. Nicolaou quickly followed with an identical score of 6-2, 6-1 over Chung to push the score to 3-0 in favor of Houston. She also moves to 9-1 on the spring season.
Mazzari remained undefeated on the season at 10-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Summer Walker. The win gave the Cougars the 4-0 clinch against UConn. Mazzari’s dominant serving and outstanding baseline play propelled her to the victory.
Ana Glumac bounced back from a tough loss last week with a 6-1, 6-0 rout against Elizabeth Kozyi to give Houston its fifth point of the match.
Mills was defeated in a very close match 6-4, 1-6, 5-10 by Jacqueline Lazaro. This loss puts her at 4-4 on the season. Dimitrova rounded out singles in a close match in which she eventually lost 6-7, 6-7 to Pletnyeva. She moves to 8-2 this spring season. The Cougars won the overall match 5-2 against UConn.
The Houston Cougar Women’s Tennis team won their tenth match of the season against Northwestern State in a sweep on Saturday. They move to 10-1 this spring season and hope to keep the momentum going during a road trip next weekend.
Lauren Alter and Alison Mills started off doubles with a convincing 6-0 win over Judit Castillo and Eli Iwaniuk. Ana Glumac and Constandena Nicolaou followed up with a 6-2 win over Kateryna Avram and Emilija Dancetovic to clinch the doubles point for the Cougars.
Tsveta Dimitrova and Sveva Mazzari’s match was stopped early due to the Cougars clinching the doubles point. They led 5-3 against Polina Mutel and Polina Ivanova and were a point away from the victory.
Dimitrova bounced back from her singles loss on Friday to win 6-0, 6-0 against Polina Ivanova. Dimitrova is now 9-2 on the season in singles. Her doubles partner, Sveva Mazzari, won her match as well in a score of 6-4, 6-0 over Polina Mutel, to put the Cougars up 3-0 in the overall match. Mazzari leads the team in singles with an 11-0 record.
Alter clinched the match 4-0 for the Cougars in a decisive 6-2, 6-3 win over Emilija Dancetovic. Alter earned her tenth singles win of the season. Ana Glumac won the next match 6-4, 6-0 over Kateryna Avram to push the score to 5-0 overall for the Cougars. The match was stopped when the Cougars led 5-0.
At the time of stoppage, there were two singles matches still playing. Constandena Nicolaou was up 6-4, 4-2 in her match against Ela Iwaniuk, and Alison Mills trailed 3-6, 1-5 against Judit Castillo in her match.
