CHENEY, Wash. — In the team's first competition of the 2023-24 season, Eastern Washington women's tennis emerged victorious.
The Eagles duo of Scout Mathews and Isabella Foshee won the Eagle Invitational, after defeating Seattle U's Elena Kraleva and Liliya Dimova in the finals.
Along with the Redhawks, Eastern faced off against Idaho and Montana during the three-day tournament (Oct. 6-8). Players were paired with a teammate against another duo, playing one doubles match each having one singles match. The team with two wins advanced in the bracket.
"This was a great weekend of matches for the team. Scout [Mathews] and Isabella [Foshee] were able to win our home event, which is a huge accomplishment against some really tough competition," head coach Dustin Hinson said. "They played great together all weekend in doubles and came up clutch in singles when they had to to get the overall win. They fought really hard in the finals today against the top seed from Seattle U and came back from a 2-5 deficit to win the doubles a tiebreaker. They played smart, composed and never gave up. Their singles play was equally as impressive all weekend and I'm excited to see what they continue to accomplish as we move into more matches this Fall. The rest of the team had really hard fought wins throughout the weekend as well."
Mathews and Foshee trailed 5-2 in the doubles round, but rallied to force a tiebreaker. The two Eagles earned a 9-7 win to claim the doubles points. Mathews won her singles match over Kraleva to clinch the tournament title. Foshee battled in a three-set match with Dimova, but came up just short in the tiebreaker (6-3, 3-6, 6(4)-7(7).
Jennifer Kida and Leandra Nizetic partnered up and defeated Montana's Shivika Agrawal and Hailey Murphy, 2-1 in the round of 16. The duo won the doubles points 7-6 earning a 7-0 win in the tiebreaker to secure the point.
Nizetic then defeated Agrawal in the singles match (6-4, 6-1) to advance. Kida and Nizetic dropped their next matchup against Idaho's Rachelle Starreveld and Idah Johansson, 3-0.
The two Eagles competed against Lena Beckx and Diana Khaydashina from Idaho in a doubles extra match. Kida and Nizetic defeated the Vandal duo, 6-3.
In the additional singles matches, Kida defeated Idaho's Annabel Davis, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 and Beckx, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(1).
Nizetic knocked off Seattle's Lola Tavor in three sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-1).
True freshman Anait Arutiunian earned a three-set win over Agrawal (2-6, 6-3, 6-2).
Hinson further praised his team mentality and effort during the weekend, "The main characteristic I noticed in every player on our team was the "never say die" attitude they had. We were down early in a lot of matches and we were able to play smart and figure out a way to come back to win. Those are the kind of characteristics that we want to see, especially this early in the season. I'm happy with our start and now I want to work to prepare for our big tournament next weekend at Stanford."
Up Next
Eastern's second competition of the fall will be next week in Stanford, Calif. For the ITA Northwest Regional. The tournament goes from Thursday (Oct. 12) to Monday (Oct. 16).
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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