Junior Azul Pedemonti was undefeated during the American Athletic Conference Tennis Championship Tournament when paired with sophomore Blanca Cortijo Parreno. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar.
UH tennis competed as a sixth seed in the American Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Championship that took place April 20-23, sweeping East Carolina 4-0 in the first round and eventually falling to Tulane 4-1in the quarterfinals.
The matches took place at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. and marks the end of the Cougars’ 2022 Spring season.
ECU
The Cougars cruised through the first round of the tournament in a matchup against ECU.
Doubles play began the day and UH tennis got to work early, taking the first two matches needed for the point immediately.
Senior Sophie Gerits and sophomore Laura Slisane defeated the Pirates freshman team of Anne Lou Champion and Isabella Rivera Orti 6-1. Soon after junior Azul Pedemonti and sophomore Blanca Cortijo Parreno defeated another freshman team in Alisha Hussain and Ines Bachir in a 6-3 battle to secure the point for UH.
After being awarded the point, singles play began. The Cougars continued their dominance, winning the first three matches to make it a clean sweep in the day.
UH freshman Maria Dzemeshkevich, sophomore Gabriela Giraldo and Slisane all notched wins to power the Cougars past ECU in the first round of the tournament.
Tulsa
The Cougars’ afternoon against Tulsa got off to a solid start, taking the doubles point with two big wins against the Tulsa pairings to go up 1-0 early.
Pedemonti and Parreno came away with their second win as a team. Following that, a tight battle ended with another UH victory after Gerits and Slisane came away with a 7-5 nail-biting win to take the point.
This would be the last point scored for the Cougars in this tournament.
Tulsa came out with a sense of urgency in singles play, taking four straight matches to make it a singles-sweep and win the day at 4-1.
Gerits, Pedemonti, Slisane and Dzemeshkevich were the Cougars who received losses in the contest, the remainder of the matches went unfinished and Tulsa advanced to the semifinals to take on SMU.
