Helen Jiao advances to semifinals of ITA Regional Championships

LAS VEGAS – BYU's Helen Jiao advanced to the semifinals of Flight B singles at the ITA Regional Championships Friday.

"Fall tournaments are so much about mental and physical toughness," said BYU women's tennis head coach Holly Parkinson Hasler. "It is important that we take one match and one day at a time. It's been great to see our hard work and effort pay off."

After a long day of competition, Jiao pulled out the win in straight sets against Utah State’s Sidnee Lavatai 6-4, 6-1. Leah Heimuli also competed in the quarterfinals but lost in three sets to Reno’s Anastaysha Gorbacheva 7-5, 4-6, 3-6.

Emilee Astle played her consolation singles match Friday but lost to Weber State’s Megan Lombardi 6-3, 6-1. Kate Cusick Truman also played in the consolation round, losing in a hard-fought three sets match to Idaho’s Laura Spataro 4-6, 6-3, 0-1.

In the Flight Two consolations, Emma Jewell took the win in straight sets against Wyoming’s Zarah Mughal 6-2, 6-0. In the same consolation flight, Madeline Almeida lost in straight sets to UNLV’s En-Pei Huang 1-6, 0-6.

In the doubles Round of 16, Heimuli and Cusick Truman lost 5-8 against seventh-seeded Asano and Huang, from UNLV.

The Cougars will play their final day of competition on Saturday.