Samantha Smith at the Cal Fall Invitational. Smith reached the semifinal round of the consolation bracket. (BYU Photo)
The BYU women's tennis team opened its fall season at the Cal Fall Invitational in Berkeley, California, on Sept. 29-30.
While the team was not able to come out victorious, freshmen Hermehr Kaur and Madeline Almeida showed promise.
“We got a lot of tennis in this weekend, said BYU coach Lauren Jones-Spencer. 'I thought the freshmen did well in their first collegiate matches. We had some other tough three-set matches we weren’t able to pull out, but I was happy with how we fought.”
Kaur made it to the quarterfinals in the ITA Gold Singles after defeating Cal Poly's Caroline Williams in the first round (6-4, 0-6, 6-4) and Cal's Jasie Dunk (7-6(2), 6-4) in the round of 16. However, Kaur was injured in the quarterfinal play on Saturday and defaulted.
However, Kaur was injured in the quarterfinal play on Saturday and defaulted.
Almeida also made it to the ITA Gold Singles quarterfinals, where she fell to San Francisco's Alexa Meyer (6-0, 2-6, 4-6).
Katie Fitt was defeated by Sacramento State's Sofi Wicker in the first round of the Gold Singles (4-6, 4-6). Fitt was injured in the consolation round and retired before the finish.
Katie Cusick and Anastasia Abramyan won the first round of the ITA Blue Doubles but were defeated in the quarterfinals by Cal's Karla Popovic and Olivia Haauger (3-8).
Samantha Smith and Almeida were defeated in the first round of the Blue Doubles.
They played in the consolation bracket, where they defeated Ana Loaiza and Jenna Dorian of Sacramento State (8-2) before falling in the semifinals (3-8).
Taylah Beckman and Kaur made it to the quarterfinals in the ITA Gold Doubles but were defeated by Saint Mary's Kareena Manji and Vanessa Nommenson (5-8).
Cusick, Smith, Abramyan and Beckman were all defeated in the first round of the Blue Singles on Friday. However, all were able to compete in the consolation round, except for Beckman, who defaulted due to injury.
In the consolation round, Smith won by default due to injury in the first round and made it to the quarterfinals. There, she lost to Cal's Vivian Glozman (2-6, 4-6).
Abramyan came out victorious in the first round, defeating Nevada's Mrta Ruedas Burgos (6-1, 6-0), but fell in the quarterfinals to Pacific's Karina Vrylan (1-6, 4-6).
Cusick won the first round of consolation and beat Cal Poly's Susanne Boyden in the quarterfinals (6-1, 6-2). This allowed Cusick to move on to the semifinals, but she did not compete in the match because of BYU's policy to not participate in Sunday play.
While Beckman did not compete in the consolation round, she was able to play in the Robin Draw on Saturday. There, she beat Auban Ville of Saint Mary's (6-3, 3-6, 10-4).
The Cougars will be competing in the ITA Regionals in Salt Lake City on Oct. 11-14.