By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
EDMOND, Okla. – Fort Hays State Tennis notched four wins at the ITA Fall Central Regional, featuring the majority of the top players in the Central Region of NCAA Division II. Fiorella Mendez was the most successful Tiger on the weekend with three wins overall, which included two in singles and one in doubles.
Mendez won her first two matches in the Singles B Draw, defeating Lexi Penn of Central Oklahoma 6-4, 6-1 in the Round of 64 and Antonia Ramos of Newman University 6-3, 6-0 in the Round of 32. She made the deepest run of any Tiger in singles play, reaching the Round of 16 where she fell to Vanessa Cozamanis of Southeastern Oklahoma State on a tiebrea.
Maria Paz Diaz claimed the other singles win for FHSU, winning her opening round match in the A Draw against No. 16 seeded Isabella Martensson of Washburn. However, she fell to Daniela Baez of Arkansas Tech in the Round of 32, 6-0, 6-0.
In doubles play Kylie Aufdengarten teamed with Mendez to win their opening round match in the B Draw by a score of 8-3 over Ellie Messenger and Alyssa Owens of Missouri Western. They fell in the Round of 16 to Narindra Ranaivo and Masha Hatouka of Nebraska-Kearney. The team of Stefany Stemmer and Diaz went 0-2 in doubles action in the A Draw.
Stemmer, Aufdengarten, and Aliyah Frederick all went 0-2 in singles matches. Aufdengarten came up just short in her first match, falling 10-8 in the decisive tiebreaker set.
The Tigers will close out their fall schedule on Friday (Oct. 8) at home when they take on Tabor College at 3 pm.