Cowgirls Open Bedford Cup with Strong Play

USAFA, Colo., – The Wyoming Cowgirls once again started a fall tournament strongly Friday with day one of the Bedford Cup, hosted by Air Force. The Cowgirls sent a pair of to Saturday’s semifinals in their respective flights.

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Silver Bijlsma and Anastasiia Kochelaevskaia both went 2-0 on the day for Wyoming. Bijlsma continues her excellent start to her career at UW, moving her record to 4-0 in the fall with a couple of straight-set victories. All four of Bijlsma’s wins have been in two sets this season. Bijlsma opened with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Idaho’s Chenyu Xu before closing the day with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Hana Becirovic of Denver.

Kochelaevskaia began the day with a 6-3 and 6-4 win over Asem Shoybek of Idaho State. In the afternoon, she won 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3 over Heidi Crncan of Colorado, to also when both in straight sets. Wyoming also got victories in singles out of Serina Abriola, Violetta Borodina, Eugenia Ceinos, Madlena Orlova and Ruby Young.

In doubles, the Cowgirls advanced a trio of duos to tomorrow’s second round. The team of Bijlsma and Borodina held on for a 7-6 (8-6) over a team from Air Force. Abriola and Ceinos won their matchup 7-6 (7-4) over New Mexico. Rounding things out was Kochelaevskaia and Young, who also won in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (11-9).

“Pretty good day today for the team,” said Head Coach Dean Clower.

“I felt that we have taken some major strides forward in doubles and are beginning to play our style. In singles, I thought we got after it on every line and I see us playing more and more structured.”

Day two of the Bedford Cup is Saturday and will feature two rounds of doubles and a round of singles.