DALLAS, Texas (Nov. 6, 2016) – The Wyoming Cowgirl tennis team closed out the 2016 fall season on Sunday at the Blue and Red Challenge in Dallas. The three-day event saw teams from Liberty, Loyola Marymount, Oklahoma State, SMU, Tulsa, Wichita State and Wyoming visit the SMU Tennis Complex.

"We definitely had a slow start to the day," head coach Dean Clower said. "Tessa (van Der Ploeg) and Elisa (Koonik) had a great day on the doubles side. Elisa is playing at another level than she was at the end of last year and the beginning of the semester. In singles, I feel like we took more strides forward and playing our style of tennis."

It was a tough outing for the Cowgirls on Sunday with only one doubles team coming out with a victory. Elisa Koonik and Tessa Van Der Ploeg defeated Tanaporn Thongsing and Ting-Ya Hsu of Wichita State, 6-1. In other doubles action, Dorottya Jonas and Imogen Clews lost to Vera Ploner and Martha Matoula, 7-5 and Miranda Talbert and Ana Tkachenko fell to Sara Jamal Jamal and Mary Wright, 6-4.  

Singles play proved to fair a little better for Wyoming by winning four of eight matches played. Koonik defeated Ela Ewaniuk of Tulsa, 6-4, 7-6, while Milka Genkova beat Mahitha Dadireddy, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Tkachenko wrapped up her weekend with a straight set win, 6-2, 6-2, over Aleksandra Panchenko. Jonas fell to Gabriela Porubin, 6-1, 6-3 followed by van der Ploeg with a 6-3, 6-3 loss against Martina Okalova. Marcelina Cichon needed two sets to beat Talbert, 6-3, 6-3, but she responded with an 8-3 win against Jamal of SMU. Clews closed out the day with a three set win, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 win against Mariely Hassey.

Wyoming returns to action at the Hurricane Invite on January 20 in Tulsa, Okla.