The Utes finished their first match of the season at the BYU Invitational last week. Utah dominated day one of the competition, but with the exception of two athletes, had some trouble maintaining its success in day two.
Thursday’s matches saw quite a few Utes advancing to the quarterfinal rounds of play. Senior Erin Monson, junior Evgenia Kryuchkova, sophomores Anastasia Putilina and Missy Harris and freshman Paige Miles all made their way to the quarterfinal round in the singles flight-A bracket. Senior Andrea Maughan also advanced to the semifinals of flight-B singles, and all three doubles teams managed to make their way to the quarterfinals.
The Utes suffered some losses in day two, but Kryuchkova and Maughan were able to hang on and build on their wins from day one. Kryuchkova defeated teammate Monson
in the quarterfinals, and Putilina, Harris and Miles were all knocked out of the competition by athletes from BYU.
Doubles team Kryuchkova and Harris were defeated in the quarterfinals of day two by BYU’s Megan Price and McCall Jones. Monson and Maughan clinched a win in the quarterfinals over Paloma Navarro and Carly Van Hollen of Wyoming, as did Putilina and Miles, beating BYU’s Elizaveta Ezhova and Chie Hayasaka. Monson, Maughan, Putilina and Miles were forced out in the semifinals by BYU’s second-seeded team of Kristina Doerr and Romina Nedakovic, and the first-seeded team of Price and Jones, respectively.
Maughan proved to be tough competition in her matches and dominated the flight-B singles tournament in Provo, capturing the title for the Utes. Her win came after defeating Wyoming’s Sasa Nemcova in the semifinals and BYU’s Aubrey Paul in the finals.
Head coach Mat Iandolo said he is excited to see how Maughan will do in the next tournament and is looking forward to the team learning from their losses during day two’s competition.
The Utes’ next tournament will be in Colorado Springs Oct. 2 to Oct. 4 when they play in the Air Force Academy Invitational.