University of Wyoming Tennis Duo Falls To Tennessee Pair At Nationals

The University of Wyoming Cowgirl Tennis team had the honor of sending the doubles team of Popovici and Synkova to Nationals in New York. The Cowgirls have made many improvements over the past few seasons and are now seeing the outcome of their hard work and dedication.

The 2011 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships began action this morning but brought with it unfortunate results for the Cowgirls doubles team of Veronica Popovici and Simona Synkova. The girls faced off against Tennessee's doubles team of Natalie Pluskota and Kata Szekely.

It was an extremely hard fought match by the Cowgirls, unfortunately they lost to Tennessee 4-8. According to UW Head Coach Kati Gyulai, "We had a slow start but picked it up, the climb was just too steep and we ran out of time."

The Cowgirls will now have a chance to compete in back-draw competition beginning Friday, November 4th. As of now they do not know who they will play or at what time. The level of play was very high and this is the first time the University of Wyoming has competed at Nationals. This weekend marks a corner stone for UW Tennis as the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships brings together 20 of the nation's best collegiate doubles teams.

To qualify for the event you must win your respective USTA/ITA Division Championship. Veronica Popovici and Simona Synkova won the USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Tournament to qualify and had gone undefeated until today.

To put things in perspective, previous champions and finalists of the national competition include current professionals John Isner, James Blake, Somdev Devvarman, Irina Falconi, Lisa Raymond, as well as Bob and Mike Bryan. Not only that, but the list also includes Big Ten legends and Grand Slam finalists Todd Martin and MaliVai Washington.

As for the rest of the Cowgirl Tennis team, they will be competing at the Utah Invitational November 4th-6th in Salt Lake City.