University of Houston
SMU Invitational
Houston Opens SMU Invitational
10/5/2018 8:31:00 PM | Tennis
Ndunda, Belovukovic and Tairyan advance in singles play
HOUSTON – The Houston Cougar Women's Tennis team completed the opening day of the SMU Invitational with three singles wins and a doubles victory, on Friday in Dallas, Texas.
Action began with doubles play, where junior Phonexay Chitdara and freshman Sophie Gerits advanced to the semifinal round of Flight 1 with a victory over Meredith Roberts and Tamara Racine of Mississippi State. Chitdara and Gerits cruised to a 6-3 victory to advance to meet Ana Perez-Lopez and Karina Traxler (SMU) at 10 a.m., Saturday.
Elsewhere in doubles action Constandena Nicolaou and Ndindi Ndunda played a back-and-forth match against Damira Muminovic and Eva Chivu of Georgia State. With the match tied at six, the teams would head to a tiebreaker, but the Georgia State team would prevail 7-6 (6).
Nicolaou and Ndunda will meet Autumn Crossnoe and Allison Stewart (Abilene Christian) in the consolation round at 10 a.m., Saturday.
In Houston's final doubles match of the day, freshmen Stephanie Belovukovic and Elena Tairyan fell 6-2 to Abidullina Adel-Byanu and Kirtana Bhat of Central Oklahoma. Belovukovic and Tairyan will meet Carolina Bulatovic and Myu Kageyama (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) at 9 a.m., Saturday.
Houston picked up a singles win from Ndunda after a straight-set victory in the first round of Flight 4. Ndunda rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Momoka Horiguchi (UT Arlington) to advance to the flight semifinals. Ndunda will meet Lee Barnard (Middle Tennessee State), Saturday.
Belovukovic also tabbed a victory on Saturday, advancing to the Flight 5 semifinals after a win over Helena Kuppig of Austin Peay. Belovukovic dropped just one game in the first set, taking a 6-1 advantage, before Kuppig answered with a 6-0 win to even the match. The decisive set followed the theme of the match, playing down to the wire, however Belovukovic pulled off a 7-6 (5) victory to seal the match.
Belovukovic advances to meet Katherine Jakeway (SMU) on Saturday.
Houston's final win of the afternoon came from Tairyan, who made her season debut against Yada Vasupongchai in Flight 8. Tairyan and Vasupongchai played back-and-forth in the first set before Tairyan prevailed 7-5,. The redshirt freshman returned in the second set to cruise to a 6-2 win and clinch her first victory.
Tairyan moves on to face Sylvia Viljoen (Abilene Christian) on Saturday in the semifinals.
Also in singles play on Friday, Chitdara and Nicolaou each lost their first round matchups while playing in Flight 2. Chitdara fell to Racine 6-1, 6-4, while Nicolaou dropped her match to Sara Lizariturry (Mississippi State) 6-2, 6-4. Chitdara will face Sarai Monarrez Yesaki (SMU) in the consolation round, while Nicolaou will meet Tatiana Nikolaeva (Austin Peay).
In Houston's final match of the afternoon, Gerits dropped a tough match to Sarah Adams of Abilene Christian. Despite losing the first set 6-4, Gerits battled to keep things even at 5-5 in the second set, however Adams was able to break and hold serve to win 7-5 and seal the victory.
Gerits will face Liza Buss (SMU) on Saturday in the Flight 3 consolation round.
FOLLOW THE COUGARS
Fans can keep up with the latest in University of Houston Cougar athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook.com/HoustonAthletics), Twitter (@UHCougars), Instagram (houstoncougars) and YouTube.com (Youtube.com/UHAthletics). In addition, the women's tennis team has established its own official Facebook (Facebook.com/HoustonCougarTennis) and Twitter pages (@UHCougarTennis).
Players Mentioned
