Wyoming Wins Pair of ‘Flight’ Titles in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS, Colo., – It was an extremely successful final day of the Jon Messick Invitational for the Wyoming Cowgirls as they came away with a pair of Flight champions and picked up multiple doubles and singles victories Sunday.

“Today was a good day for the Cowgirls,” head coach Dean Clower said. “I was really pleased with the passion and grit we showed in a lot of matches, which pushed us through for many wins. I thought the upper classmen like Anastasiia (Kochelaevskaia), Silver (Bijlsma) and Dilnaz (Mashabayeva) showed the freshmen what Cowgirl Tennis is all about. This team has a lot of talent, but talent doesn’t win championships alone, grit does. We have a lot of work to do in many areas, but this was definitely a good start to the season.”

Anastasiia Kochelaevskaia closed with a Flight A title behind the strength of her 6-4, 6-3 win over Air Force’s Chaeyule Kang.

In Flight D, Ivona Ridan came away with a 6-4 and 6-1 win over Johanna Roggenkamp of AFA. Dilnaz Mashabayeva won her final match of the flight, 8-3 in an “extra” match over CSU’s Logan Voeks. Mashabayeva and Ridan defeated Roggenkamp and Voeks, respectively, Saturday and would have had to face one another in the flight D final, so just flipped opponents for Sunday.

The Cowgirls also got a pair of third-place wins Sunday as Silver Bijlsma in Flight A and Zlata Nesterova in “C” came away with victories. Bijlsma won a three-set battle with Sorcha Caves of Colorado State, battling back to win 3-6, 6-3 and 10-2. Nesterova, meanwhile, won 7-5 and 6-3. Antonella Taco also enjoyed a 6-4 win in her “extra” match Sunday.

UW also picked up a pair of doubles wins to close-out its first action of the fall. The team of Kochelaevskaia and Ruby Young won 6-1 over a tandem of Utah State. Mashabayeva and Taco came away with a 6-3 win over Air Force.

Next up for the Cowgirls is a trip next week to the Air Force Bedford Cup. That tournament is Sept. 25-27.

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