Freshman top Vandal at ITA Regionals
Four Idaho women’s tennis players competed Wednesday to Saturday at the ITA Regionals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but sophomore Galina Bykova exceeded expectations with her strong performance. She went 4-1 in singles play and 3-1 in doubles play over the tournament.
Bykova started with a blowout win over Dominique Beauvails from Weber State 6-0, 6-0. The win advanced the St. Petersburg, Russia, native to the second round to take on the tournament’s No. 5 seed, Maureen Slattery from Denver. Bykova won the first set 6-2, before barely squeezing by in the second set 7-5. In the third round, Bykova went at it with Natasha Smith from New Mexico, who she ousted 6-2, 6-3. Smith was the No. 17 seed in the tournament.
Finding herself in the quarterfinals as one of four players left, she ran into her third straight seeded opponent, Ashvarya Shrivastava from New Mexico State. Bykova’s luck ran out at this point though, and she fell 6-4, 6-4 to the Aggie.
“It was a very good weekend for us,” Idaho coach Mariana Cobra said. “Galina had an amazing singles tournament, upsetting the No. 5 seed. This weekend proved we are doing the right things.”
The other three Vandals did not have as much success. Senior Emmie Marx beat Jocelle Rudico from Air Force 6-0, 6-1, before losing to Mayci Jones from BYU in the second round 2-6, 6-4, 1-6. Lucia Badillos outplayed Arianna Paules Aldrey from Boise State and won 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 in a tight match. In the second round though, Badillos fell to Kyra Wojcik of Colorado 6-4, 6-1. Sophie Vickers failed to make it out of the first round, and lost to Sharon Coone from New Mexico 7-6, 6-2.
In doubles however, Idaho found success. The team of Bykova and Vickers advanced past Daphne Visscher and Lois Wagenvoort from UTEP in the opening round 8-3. Playing Beth Coton and Courtney Schulte from Big Sky foe Northern Colorado in the second round, the Vandal pair won 8-5. They beat Paola Artiga and Mercedes Lopez Velez from UNLV 8-4 in the third round.
Finally, in the quarterfinals, Bykova and Vickers fell to Sarah Richer and Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa from Utah in an intense match ending 8-7 (5).
The other Vandal doubles team was made up of Emmie Marx and Lucia Badillos. They won their first match against Cecilia Mercier and Silviya Zhelyazkova from Wyoming 8-2, before falling to the team of Rimpledeep Kaur and Ashvarya Shrivastava from New Mexico State 8-7 (8).
Ben Evensen can be reached at [email protected]