Cusick and Abramyan shine in second day of ITA Regionals

Salt Lake City – Sophomore Kate Cusick and freshman Anastasia Abramyan remain undefeated in the tournament as a duo and individually for the Cougars Thursday in the second day of the ITA Regionals.

“We had some tight, tough doubles matches today,” BYU head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. “We just weren’t able to execute when new needed to. Kate and Anastasia both did a great job in singles and pulled out two great wins.”

Cusick and Abramyan faced off against UNLV’S Juliet Zhang and Izumi Asano in the second round of doubles and earned the Cougar’s only doubles victory of the day. The pair won convincingly against the Rebels 8-1 to advance to Friday’s doubles play in the Round of 16.

In singles Cusick continued her great performance versus Victoria Robertson of Utah, winning 6-2, 6-2. In her second match of the day, Cusick played a tight match against UNLV’s Anna Bogoslavets, defeating her 6-4, 7-5.

Abramyan, also had solid play in her individual matches. She competed first against Colorado’s Annabelle Andrinopoulos and earned a win in straight sets 7-5, 6-3. Abramyan sustained her excellent performance with another victory Thursday versus Asano of UNLV 6-1, 6-4. Abramyan and Cusick will play in the Round of 16 on Friday.

Samantha Smith looked to continue her great start from Wednesday in her first match of the day against Laura Sparato of Idaho. Each played a close match, but Smith came out on top 7-6, 6-3. Later in the round of 32, Smith was defeated 1-6, 3-6.

Freshman Madeline Almeida fought hard in her match against UNLV’s Aiwen Zhu before falling short 6-3, 2-6, 3-6. Junior Taylah Beckman squared off against Elisa Koonik of Wyoming and lost 4-6, 3-6. Hemher Kaur participated in a consolation practice match and won 6-3, 4-6, 10-3.

The four remaining doubles teams for BYU all battled in back and forth matches against their opponents, but eventually lost with identical 6-8 scores.

The ITA Regionals continue for its third day on Friday morning.