BATON ROUGE, La. – A successful day on Sunday at the ITA Southern Regional for Alexandra Mikhailuk and Athina Pitta.
The Mississippi State women’s tennis duo won a pair of doubles matches that put them into the semifinals of the event hosted by LSU.
Mikhailuk and Pitta started things off on Sunday by downing the Ole Miss tandem of Lucie Devier and Ludmila Kareisova 8-5 in the round of 16. The pair followed up with a 8-7(3) victory over Kristen Borland and Lahari Yelamanchili of Tulane.
“Overall, I am very happy,” head coach Chris Hooshyar said. “I am impressed with Alexandra’s and Atina’s run in doubles. They have played some good doubles and their chemistry is very good. They balance each other emotionally. They have a big doubles game on the court tomorrow and I am excited to see them compete.”
State’s duo of Mikhailuk and Pitta will take on Florentine Dekkers and Aran Teixido Garcia of LSU at 2 p.m. on Monday.
Dharani Niroshan dropped her match in the singles quarterfinals to Petra Sedlackova of Alabama 6-3, 6-3.
The Bulldogs won three of their four singles consolation matches. Mikhailuk took down Olga Bienzobas of Louisiana Tech 6-2, 6-2 and Pitta prevailed over Tiffani Nash of Louisiana Tech 6-1, 6-3. Maria Rizzolo claimed the third singles win for MSU with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Sean Mullen of Tulane.
Freshman Ava Rath fell to Adela Wasserbauerova of UAB 7-5, 6-3 in her singles consolation match.
“I am satisfied with how the weekend ended for a lot of the girls,” Hooshyar said. “We tried to get in as many matches as we could. The girls are starting to buy into the more matches and challenges the better. Then it’s about embracing the challenges and I felt like we did that as the week went on. We still have to learn about not fighting ourselves and not playing with fear of the outcome. I don’t want them to play to lose, but to play to win and I felt like the girls did a good job of that.”
ITA Southern Regional
LSU Tennis Complex | Baton Rouge, La.
Oct. 8, 2023
Doubles Main Draw
Round of 16
Alexandra Mikhailuk/Athina Pitta (MSU) def. Lucie Devier/Ludmila Kareisova (Ole Miss) 8-5
Quarterfinals
Alexandra Mikhailuk/Athina Pitta (MSU) def. Kristen Borland/Lahari Yelamanchili (Tulane) 8-7(3)
Singles Main…
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