Three individuals and one doubles team had a strong showing, advancing to the next round to begin the 2016 ITA Mountain Regional Championships on Wednesday in Albuquerque.


"Today was a good start to the week," head coach Dean Clower said. "To go undefeated at an event like this on the first day is no small feat. All of our players in this tournament played very mature tennis. Now we need to get ready to do it tomorrow."

All three Cowgirls in singles play won their first round matches to begin the day. Sophomore Tessa Van Der Ploeg advanced with a straight set victory, 6-0, 6-2, over Eli Amaudova of New Mexico State. Senior Dorottya Jonas needed three sets, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, in her win against Blanka Szavay of Northern Arizona, while sophomore Elisa Koonik defeated Sabrina Demerath of Utah State, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. Junior Magdalena Stencel earned a first round bye and will be action tomorrow.

The lone duo of Koonik and van Der Ploeg earned an 8-3 victory over Caitlin Herb and Tereza Pilzova of Weber State. They will take on the fourth-seeded team in the tournament, Aiwen Zhu and Carol Zi Yang of UNLV tomorrow.

Play will continue tomorrow with the round of 64 and 32 in singles and the round of 32 in doubles play.