SPOKANE, Wash. — The final matches of 2023 were memorable for Eastern Washington women's tennis as they completed the three-day Gonzaga Invite. Sophomore
Leandra Nizetic won the final match of the White singles bracket today to highlight a successful weekend in Spokane for EWU.
"This weekend was a great way to cap off our fall tournament schedule. We were able to get some good matches against some of our conference teams, which will help as we look ahead to our dual match conference season, starting in January," head coach Dustin Hinson said. "I thought, overall, we competed really well in doubles and singles play. The work we have been putting in on the mental side of our game has definitely been paying off. We were able to stay very composed during the close moments in matches and I liked the way we were able to let go of mistakes and things outside of our control."
Singles
Nizetic faced Idaho's Ida Johansson in the finals match, cruising to a 6-2 win in the first set. Johansson won the second set, 7-5, but Nizetic turned up the energy and won the tie breaker, 10-6. The Coesfeld, Germany native defeated Felicia Jayasaputra from Montana State (6-4, 6-2) in the semifinals to advance. She had wins over Montana's Ivayla Mitkova (6-4, 6-2) and Portland State's Madison Egan (6-3, 6-3) during the tournament as well.
Redshirt-sophomore Anait Arutiunian posted two wins in the Red bracket, opening with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Portland's Kylie Canubida. Arutiunian then knocked off Montana State's Angel Bean (6-4, 6-4) in the quarterfinal match. She fell in the semifinals to Hania Abouelsaad (5-7, 4-6) from Washington State.
Junior Isabella Foshee earned a win over Seattle U's Liliya Dimva (6-3, 6-3) in the round of 16 in the Blue bracket.
Hinson spoke about his team's wins in the singles competition, "I was very pleased with newcomer Anait Arutiunian, reaching the semifinals in singles with some very impressive wins over Portland and Montana State opponents. [Isabella] Foshee also had a great start-to-finish singles match in her win. The weekend was highlighted by Lea Nizetic being able to win her singles flight! She won three great matches against PSU, MSU and Idaho opponents to win the tournament. That gives us two wins in three tournaments we played this fall. We are playing with some real confidence and I'm excited with what I see as we build towards our team conference championship season."
Doubles
Jennifer Kida and Arutiunian partnered up in doubles and started with a 6-3 win over Egan and Elizabeth Strongina from Portland St in the Blue bracket. The two dropped their next match to Gonzaga's Lia Espinal and Rose Yaes, 5-7.
Scout Mathews and Foshee won their opening round of the Gold bracket, 6-4, over Marta Garcia-Robredo and Meg McCarty from Montana State. They fell to Washington St.'s Eva Alvarez Sande and Elyse Tse, 3-6.
Up Next
With the end of its fall schedule, Eastern will be off until its spring schedule begins, starting with Washington on Jan. 12 in Seattle, Wash.
ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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