Sept. 16, 2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky women’s tennis team began its fall tournament play today, starting strong in the Muirfield Collegiate Tennis Invitational at The Country Club at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
Three of the Wildcats are participating in the tournament that lasts until Sunday. In the doubles matches, junior Jessica Stiles and sophomore Caitlin McGraw paired up for an 8-1 win today against Eastern Michigan University’s Georgia de’Lisle-Tarr and Marcela Rivero. Their impressive performance earned them the fourth seed for Saturday.
McGraw and Stiles also excelled individually in their singles matches. Stiles faced Marcela Rivero again, cruising through the match to win in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. McGraw took on another EMU player, Daphne Friedrichs and won the match, 6-3, 6-2.
Freshman Edmee Morin made her UK debut facing University of Cincinnati’s Sierra Sullivan in the first round of singles play. She won the match in a 10-point super tiebreaker, 6-7, 6-1, 1-0 (2).
With a successful first day, all three Wildcats will move on to play tomorrow. Stiles will be the number three seed while McGraw will fill the number eight seed
Six more Wildcats traveled to the University of Kansas for the Kansas Invitational at the Jayhawk Tennis Center in Lawrence, Kan.
In doubles play, Freshman Stephanie Fox and Sophomore Misha Testerman competed against Jenny Nalepa and Maria Toro of St. Louis University, beating them 8-4. They moved into the next round and found more success, beating Ksenia Googe and Olga Musilovich of Washington State University, 8-3
Freshman Lyndsey Picket and Sophomore Meredith Morrow lost in the first round but went on to beat Kamryn Blackwood and Federica Longo of Nova Southeastern University, 8-4, in the first round of consolation matches.
Blajkevitch and Cece Witten defeated Mahuiyang Rong and Ioana Teu of Arkansas State University but then fell to Charlotte Koning and Andjela Kankaras of WSU. They will move on to the consolation rounds.
Fox was the only Wildcat to move on in singles play, moving past Janie Nowland of ASU in a 6-3, 6-3 win. She will play in the next round tomorrow morning.
For continuing coverage of UK Women’s Tennis log on to UKathletics.com.
