Rice University
ITA Texas Regional Championships Presented by Oracle
Owls Advance Four in Texas Regional Singles
10/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
by Chuck Pool (cpool@edu) -
Anna Bowtell and Priya Niezgoda each picked up a pair of wins to lead the Rice women's tennis team on the opening day of play at the ITA Texas Regional Championships Presented by Oracle in Fort Worth on Friday.
Bowtell and Niezgoda each advanced with a pair of straight set wins. Bowtell downed ACU's Nino Memishishi, 6-4, 7-5 and Texas State's Andrea Fuchs, 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the Round of 32 where she will take on top seed Bianca Turati of Texas at noon on Saturday.
Niezgoda raced past Chelsea Crovetti of Texas, 6-2; 6-3 and Nidhi Surapaneni of North Texas, 6-3,6-1. She will take on sixth seeded Donika Bashota of host TCU also at noon.
Sofie Moenster and Fernanda Astete picked up opening wins only to fall in the second round. Moenster ground out a 7-6(9); 4-6; 6-1 win over Texas' Dani Wagland in her opener, but feel to UTA's Nanaka Takeuchi in her afternoon match. Astete downed Texas Tech's Katelyn Jackson 6-4, 7-5, but fell to Alexis Pereira (TCU) in three sets.
Two of Rice's three seeded players in singles advance to the round of 32 in rapid fashion after earning byes in Friday morning's opening round.
Seventh seed Wendy Zhang advanced with 6-1, 6-1 win over North Texas' Tamuna Kutubidze and will face SMU's Nicole Petchey on Saturday at noon. Tenth seed Lindsey Hodge dropped Kutubidze Mean Green teammate, Minying Liang, 6-3, 6-3 to earn a meeting in the Round of 32 with Baylor's Angie Shakhraichuk.
Rice's third seeded entry, #8 Michaela Haet dropped her round of 64 match to Katie Poluta of Texas, 6-4; 7-6(4). She will join Savannah Durkin, who lost her opener to Charline Anselmo of SMU, in Saturday's singles consolation round.
While Rice's two of doubles teams advanced with byes, the Owls two other doubles entries opened with wins on Saturday.
Durkin and Haet picked up an opening round win in doubles, downing Alexandra Angyalosy and Katelyn Jackson of Texas State, 8-3 to earn a meeting in the second round with North Texas' top-seeded duo of Kutubidze and Maria Kononova.
Astete and Moenster raced past Texas State's Andrea Fuchs and Flavia Gutierrez, 8-3 to earn a berth against Lucile Pothier and Whitney Williams of ACU on Saturday.
Play resumes on Saturday at 8:30 with the round of 32 in doubles at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth
2017 ITA Texas Regional Championships Presented by Oracle
Singles Main Draw
First round
Anna Bowtell (Rice) def. Nino Memishishi (ACU), 6-4; 7-5
Priya Niezgoda (Rice) def. Chelsea Crovetti (Texas) 6-2; 6-3
Fernanda Astete (Rice) def. Katelyn Jackson (Texas Tech), 6-4, 7-5
Michaela Haet (Rice) [8]-bye
Sofie Moenster (Rice) def. Dani Wagland (Texas), 7-6(9); 4-6; 6-1
Lindsey Hodge (Rice) [10] –bye
Charline Anselmo (SMU) def. Savannah Durkin (Rice), 6-4; 6-3
Wendy Zhang (Rice) [7]-bye
Second Round
Anna Bowtell (Rice) def. Andrea Fuchs (Texas State) 6-1, 6-1
Priya Niezgoda (Rice) def. Nidhi Surapaneni (North Texas) 6-3,6-1
Alexis Pereira (TCU) def. Fernanda Astete (Rice), 5-7; 6-3; 6-1
Katie Poluta (Texas) def. Michaela Haet (Rice) [8], 6-4; 7-6(4)
Nanaka Takeuchi(UTA) def. Sofie Moenster (Rice), 6-4; 6-1
Lindsey Hodge (Rice) [10] def. Minying Liang (North Texas), 6-1, 6-1
Wendy Zhang (Rice) [7] def. Tamuna Kutubidze (North Texas) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles Main Draw
First round
Savannah Durkin/Michaela Haet (Rice) def. Alexandra Angyalosy/Katelyn Jackson (Texas Tech) 8-3
Priya Niezgoda/Anna Bowtell (Rice)-bye
Lindsey Hodge/Wendy Zhang [4}-bye
Fernanda Astete/Sofie Moenster (Rice) def. Andrea Fuchs/Flavia Gutierrez (Texas State) 8-3
Players Mentioned
