Kara Lin advances to singles finals at ITA Regionals

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Sophomore Kara Lin advanced to the flight two singles final as seniors Leah Heimuli and Anastasia Abramyan advanced to the doubles quarterfinals of the ITA Regional Tournament, as BYU women’s tennis competed over the weekend.

The Cougars competed with four pairs in the doubles bracket. Abramyan and Heimuli came into the tournament as the number five overall seed, securing a bye into the round of 32, defeating Caroline Pozo and Antonia Balzert of Colorado 8-5 to move forward. Emilee Astle and Lin defeated Betina Tokac and Ellen Puzak of Colorado 8-3, moving on to the round of 32 before falling to Bland and Millard of NAU 8-6.

Abramyan and Heimuli won their round of 16 match, defeating Ana Fernandez and Sophie Zehender of Wyoming 8-4, leading into the quarterfinals. They finally fell in a hard-fought, close match to the No. 1 overall seed Britt Pursell and Camille Andersen of Denver 8-6.

BYU had six Cougars competing in flight two of the singles bracket. Lin advanced all the way to the finals match, defeating Katherine Jhang of Idaho 6-2, 6-1 in the first round, Ky Ecton of Colorado 7-6, 6-2 in round two and Katya Hersh of Utah 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals she defeated Aura Fang of UNLV 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, opening her way to the semifinals where she beat Karina Chao 7-6, 6-4, qualifying her for the finals.

Qianxin Kong, Avery Pope, Madison Smith and Yijia Jiao all made it through to the round of 32, with Jiao advancing to the round of 16 before falling to Mingfang Zhu of NMSU 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The Cougars also competed in both singles flights. Yujia Huang and Heimuli won their first matches in the first flight. Huang defeated Balzert of Colorado 7-6, 6-3 and Heimuli beat Fernandez of Wyoming 6-2, 6-3. Both were defeated in the round of 32, with Huang falling to Anna Riedmiller of Denver 6-3, 6-1 and Heimuli dropping her match to Porzo of Colorado 6-4, 7-5.

BYU travels next to Houston, Texas to participate in the Rice Invitational Oct. 29-30.