Cowgirls set for busy week of action

Wyoming travels to CSU and the ITA All-Americas
LARAMIE, Wyo. (Sept 28, 2022) – The Wyoming Cowgirl tennis team is readying for a busy week ahead in preparation of their second competitions of the fall season. The Cowgirls will be sending representatives to two different sites this weekend as some student-athletes will be traveling to Colorado State for the Jon Messick Invitational. The rest of the squad has been selected to play in the ITA All-American Championships beginning this weekend in Cary, N.C.
Four Cowgirls will be heading to North Carolina for the championships. Maria Oreshkina and Sophie Zehender have been selected to play in singles play at the All-Americans while the doubles teams of Noesjka Brink and Oreshkina, as well as Ana Fernandez and Zehender will be competing in doubles’ action.
While Oreshkina on the singles side of play was selected as a qualifier and will begin play October 3, the other Cowgirls were pre-qualifiers and will begin action Saturday, Oct. 1. Qualifiers and pre-qualifiers are both competing for spots in the Main Draw, which takes a representative from each region for competition Oct. 5-9. As a qualifier, Oreshkina is one of three regional representatives for the Mountain Region at the All-Americans while Brink, Fernandez and Zehender are one of four selected to represent the region.
Oreshkina, who is a three-time All-Mountain West honoree, is 18th all-time in program history with 55 career singles wins. Her 46 career doubles wins are just outside the top-20 all-time at UW. Brink, meanwhile, missed most the 2021-22 season due to injury, but is 23-9 in her singles career and has a 14-8 doubles record.
Fernandez and Zehender have been quite the tandem the last two seasons, taking home All-Mountain West Doubles Team honors as a duo each of the past two years. As partners the past two seasons, Fernandez and Zehender have racked up 25 dual wins combined, including a 13-4 mark in 2021. For their careers, Fernandez has 43 doubles victories while Zehender has all 25 of her wins with Fernandez.
The Rest of the Cowgirls will be playing at CSU in an eight-team event that features Colorado, Denver, New Mexico, Utah State, South Dakota and Weber State, along with the Rams and Cowgirls. Friday’s play begins at 10 a.m., with doubles matches, followed by singles play. Saturday and Sunday both begin at 9 a.m.