LARAMIE, Wyo. (Jan. 14, 2021) – The University of Wyoming Women's Tennis Team finally begins play this weekend after a long hiatus. The Cowgirls are set to play their first competitive matches since March of 2020 as they open with three matches at the Tulsa Hurricane Invitational.
Wyoming opens the season with a 9 a.m., match Saturday against Central Arkansas and then in the afternoon will play the singles portion of its match against Louisiana Tech. Sunday, UW will conclude its match against LTU with doubles play before facing off against host-Tulsa in a 9:30 a.m., contest.
"I don't think our team and staff can explain how excited we are to be able to play tennis again and compete," said Head Coach Dean Clower, who enters his 10th season as the leader of the Cowgirls.
"We haven't had a chance to coach or play in a competitive match in so long. We have an extremely young and talented team this year, which means early on this semester, we need to begin learning our style of tennis. We've got a rigorous schedule this season, playing many top-25 teams, including a top-1- team in Oklahoma State."
This weekend will be the first of 20 matches this spring for the Brown & Gold. The Cowgirls will be hosting three matches this season as Weber State comes to Laramie March 5. While Nevada and Fresno State on April 10 and 11, respectively will be the lone two conference matches for UW at home.
Wyoming returns four letter winners from last season's 8-4 squad, including All-Mountain West honoree Maria Oreshkina. Oreshkina, who was a two-time Mountain West Tennis Athlete of the Week last year, went 8-4 in singles play in duals last season, playing exclusively at the No. 1 spot. Oreshkina also went 6-3 in doubles competition a year ago.
In addition to Oreshkina, UW also returns juniors Ana Fernandez, Mihaela Kaftanova and Ida Krause while welcoming newcomers Noesjka Brink (Berghem, The Netherlands), Alyse Cormier (Lafayette, La.), Sarah Major (Fruit Heights, Utah), Lucia Malinak (Mainburg, Germany) and Sophie Zehender (Stuttgart, Germany).
-WYO-
