Three Cougars Advance to the Second Round in ITA Regionals

LAS VEGAS – Anastasia Abramyan, Madeline Almeida and Samantha Smith advanced to the second round of singles play at the ITA Mountain Region Championships on Wednesday.

"The morning started out a little rough, but we pushed through adversity and turned things around to finish on a great note," BYU women's tennis head coach, Holly Parkinson Hasler said. "I'm excited for more opportunities to learn and get better tomorrow."

Abramyan, seeded ninth in the singles draw, advances to the second round of play after defeating in-state foe SUU’s Daniela Cozzi 7-6, 6-2. Almeida also clinched a win in singles play against another SUU athlete, Ghita Nassik 6-3, 6-2. Smith won her first tournament match 7-6, 6-3 against Andriana Sosnowska from NAU and was the third Cougar to advance.

Kate Cusick, ranked in the 25-32 seed, took a 2-6, 5-7 loss in singles against Annabelle Andrinopoulos from CU. Katie Fitt was defeated by NAU’s Hanneke Lodewiijks 1-6, 2-6. Taylah Beckman also suffered a loss by Camille Verden Anderson from Denver’s team 3-6, 2-6. Cusick, Fitt and Beckman will return to the court on Friday for consolation matches. 

All three of BYU’s doubles teams took losses today in the first round. Abramyan and Polina Malykh fell short to Air Force’s Kuo and Laskey 5-8. Beckman and Smith took a 3-8 loss against Chen and Spataro from Idaho while Almeida and Cusick were defeated by CU’s Malinen and Markovic 5-8. All three BYU teams will play in consolation doubles during Thursday’s match play.

Abramyan, Almeida and Smith compete on Thursday in the second round of singles, while the three doubles teams will compete on Thursday in consolation doubles.