UH tennis competed at the Rice Invitational over the weekend. | File Photo
Houston tennis traveled across town over the weekend to take part in the Rice Invitational, taking on the University of Texas at Arlington, Rice, Texas A&M, SMU and BYU over a three-day span.
The Cougars came out with a strong showing in doubles throughout the weekend but struggled early on in singles.
Here’s how the weekend went:
Day One
The Cougars went undefeated in doubles, sweeping through all four matches that included pairings from both Rice and UTA.
Three of the wins came against Maverick pairings while the fourth came against the Owls when sophomore Gabriela Giraldo and freshman Elena Trencheva defeated the pairing of senior Anastasia Smirnova and freshman Saara Orav 8-5.
UH struggled in singles day one, only winning two of the eight matches that took place on the day.
Both wins came against Texas A&M players, with sophomore Laura Slisane defeating Texas A&M senior Renee Mcbryde (4-6, 7-5, 6-2) for the first win and senior Sophie Gerits defeating Texas A&M freshman Kayal Gownder (6-4, 7-5) for the second.
Day Two
Doubles continued to be a strong point for the Cougars, winning three of the four doubles this time against pairs from both SMU and Texas A&M.
Giraldo and Trencheva picked up their second doubles win on the weekend together after defeating the Texas A&M pairing of senior Katya Townsend and sophomore Elise Robbins 8-4.
The other two UH wins came against SMU pairs.
Singles remained a struggle for UH as they only saw two wins again in the eight contests that took place.
UH freshman Maria Dzemeshkevich won 6-3, 6-1 against BYU junior Helen Jiao while sophomore Blanca Cortijo Parreno defeated UTA freshman Novikova 6-2, 6-1.
Day Three
In the final day of play, the Cougars picked up another doubles win with Cortijo and Slisane defeating the Texas A&M pair of senior Isa Di Laura and Townsend 8-6. This was the lone win of three doubles matches.
UH turned around singles play and finished strong by winning four of the six matches played.
Slisane, Gerits and Dzemeshkevich got their second singles wins of the weekend while Giraldo got her first to cap the invitational.
Overall, the Cougars went 8-3 in doubles and 8-11 in singles for the weekend.
They travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma next weekend for the Tulsa invitational that will span over three days.
