Women's Tennis Solid in Opening Weekend

TYLER, Texas – Southeastern women's tennis opened the fall portion of the season at the Tyler JC/UT-Tyler Invite, with multiple players picking up multiple wins in singles play, facing opponents across Division I, Division II, and the Junior College ranks.
 
"This weekend's tournament in Tyler was a very strong opening tournament for our women," said head coach Brian Nelson. "It included NCAA D1 Stephen F. Austin University, three NCAA D2 ranked universities in UCO at No. 3, SOSU at No. 41, and UT Tyler at No. 43, as well as the top ranked Jr. College Tyler Jr. College and No. 5 Seward CC."
 
"Our goal," Nelson continued, "Was to try to make it at least .500, but we didn't quite achieve that goal. Three new Southeastern women got on court for the first time at SOSU, playing in the top two fights Sara Gonzalez, Skye Royall and Steffi Mcdonald. They all had tough matches against high level opponents, and I felt they handled it well for their first outing. Vanessa Cozamanis had a good win against Central Oklahoma's Buntrock. We went 10-9 against NCAA D2 opponents. We weathered the extreme heat, and did not have anyone have to retire or withdraw, compared to many other teams. Overall I am very pleased about picking up 15 individual wins from this tough tournament, and will look to get even stronger in the weeks ahead."
 
The event was divided into seven flights, with Vanessa Cozamanis in flight five, Rhythm Aswal in flight six, and Chantal Lozano in flight seven each picking up a pair of wins.
 
Cozamanis started her day with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Central Oklahoma's Blythe Buntrock, and after a loss to Elise Frigout of Stephen F Austin, she would bounce back with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Tyler JC's Patricia Apisah.
 
Aswal also opened her weekend with a win, downing UT-Tyler's Chloe Dix in a come-from-behind 1-6, 6-4, 10-5 victory. After dropping her second match, she too would finish on an up-swing by taking out another UTT player in Andrea Farris via walkover.
 
Lozano opened play with a walkover win over Seward CC's Ramirez Llorenz and followed it with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Yeva Kramarova from Tyler JC.
 
Sara Gonzalez would add a Storm win in flight one, taking out UT-Tyler's Tanyikhaa Saravannan by a 7-6, 6-0 victory, but would drop her two other matches.
 
Skye Royall added a 6-3, 7-5 win over Carol Mora Camacho in flight two, followed by a 6-1, 6-0 win by Elizaveta Tregubova over Southern Arkansas' Inna Serpukhova in flight three.
 
Georgia Hosking rounded out the Storm singles wins with a 6-2, 6-0 win over UTT's Chloe Chawner in flight four.
 
Cozamanis and Gonzalez would team up for a 6-2 win in flight one doubles action over UT-Tyler's pair of Chawner and Dix.
 
Steffi McDonald and Royall would add a win in flight two, also upending a UTT team in Ross and Deutschmann, 7-5.
 
Hosking and Tregubova would add a win over a conference foe in flight three, downing Serpukhova and Yoshimura 6-1.
 
Aswal and Lozano would round out doubles play with a pair of walkover wins, one over a Tyler JC duo and the other over a Seward CC pair, in flight four.
 
Southeastern will be back in action Sept. 17-18 at the OKC Collegiate Open in Oklahoma City, Okla.