This past weekend, Arizona women’s tennis competed in the Wildcat Invitational held at the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort.
Five Arizona singles players and three sets of doubles players won their championship match on Sunday.
Freshman Lauren Marker, who played as a Wildcat for the first time at this event, played UTSA’s Irene Gandara Gonzalez (6-1, 6-0) to win the Cardinal Singles Flight.
In other single play competition, Akilah James defeated UTSA’s Miriam Rosell-Canudas (6-3, 6-7, 6-3), while Arizona’s Carly Cassity defeated NAU’s Olivia Headford (6-1, 6-2).
“It’s great to see the girls dominate the draws for the most part,” said head coach Vicky Maes. “We came into that tournament with that expectation.”
In doubles play, senior Susan McRann and junior Laura Oldham played and beat UTEP’s Rebeca Calvillo and Davina Meza (9-7) and won the Wildcat Flight in the doubles division.
Arizona sophomores Shayne Austin and Inge Hendrikx played and beat CSUN’s Jutta Collet and NAU’s Headford (8-3) in the Cardinal Flight in the doubles division. Austin and Hendrikx also played against one another in the singles final for the Navy Flight, where Austin came out on top (3-6, 6-2, 7-5).
“Oldham and McRann took care of the doubles draw, which keeps them undefeated for the year,” Maes said. “We dominated this event and everyone got a significant amount of wins, so I’m pretty pleased. We still have work to do, but I’m happy with our progress so far.”
The UA was host to NAU, New Mexico State, UTEP, Iowa State, Cal State — Northridge, and UTSA.
The teams played both single and double events in this multi- bracket event. Friday’s matches included one round of doubles play, followed by two rounds of singles play. The second day of the Invitational started with two rounds of singles, followed by one round of doubles. The third and final day was the championship to determine the winners in each round.
Up next for the team is the ITA Regional Tournament in San Diego, Calif., which begins Thursday.
—Follow Makenzie Thiel @makenziethiel
