LARAMIE, Wyo. (Jan. 16, 2020) – The Wyoming Cowgirl tennis team opens the 2020 spring portion of its schedule this weekend as the Cowgirls travel to Tulsa, Okla., to face a trio of opponents in Louisiana Tech, Montana State and host-school Tulsa.
"The team and staff couldn't be more excited to get the season started," said Head Coach Dean Clower.
"We have a lot of things to work on early this spring, so we are hoping to begin that process this weekend."
UW opens play January 18 at 8 a.m., against Montana State and will play both the doubles and singles. In the afternoon, the Cowgirls will play the singles portion of their match against Louisiana Tech. Sunday, Jan. 19, the Cowgirls will close their match against LTU with the doubles portion at 7:30 a.m., before finishing against Tulsa at 8:30.
The Cowgirls return five student-athletes from the 2018-19 squad in Ana Fernandez, Mihaela Kaftanova, Ida Krause, Maria Oreshkina and Ana Royo as they look to replace the departure of a pair of All-Mountain West honorees from last spring in Elisa Koonik and Tessa van Der Ploeg.
Joining the returners is a trio of newcomers who made their debuts in the fall in Oleksandra Balaba, Grace Dereemer and Clara Mansart.
"We have a very deep team this year as long as we can stay healthy and we will rely on that depth heavily this year," said Clower.
"It's imperative for myself and the coaching staff to figure out combinations and lineups early in the season as we have just one senior (Royo) and the rest of the team is underclassmen. Everything is on the table as far as doubles combinations and lineups."
Wyoming had a solid fall campaign, competing at five different tournaments. The doubles team of Kaftanova and Krause were selected as a regional representative to play in the 2019 ITA Women's All-American Championships in October while Oreshkina qualified in singles play for the event.
In late September, the Cowgirls crowned multiple champions at the Wyoming Invite as Balaba won the "B" draw at the event in singles play. UW had doubles teams win both brackets at the invite as the duo of Krause and Mansart took the "A" title while Fernandez and Royo won the "B" bracket. Krause and Mansart went undefeated as a team in the fall, going 7-0 during tournament play while Fernandez and Royo compiled a record of 9-2.
Mansart compiled the most wins during singles play during the fall as she went 7-4 while Balaba went 6-5 during tournament action in 2019 while Krause went 5-4. As a team, the Cowgirls had a great fall in doubles action, going 34-10 overall with different duo combinations.
Coach Clower is in his ninth season leading the Cowgirl Tennis program and has compiled a record of 105-66 (.614) during his time at UW. Last season, Wyoming went 14-8 overall in the spring including a 3-2 mark in conference play.
Fans can follow this weekend's action live via webstream at http://streamingtennis.com/tulsa/ or at gowyo.com/coverage.
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