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MESA, Ariz. – The top seeded The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's tennis team is set to take on No. 2 UMKC for the Western Athletic Tournament Championship on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Mesa Tennis Center.
 
Last Time Out
UTRGV (14-8) advanced to the championship match of the WAC Tournament after defeating Grand Canyon 4-3 on Saturday.
 
UTRGV fell behind after Grand Canyon won the doubles point.
 
Anastasia Belyaeva tied the match at 1-1 with a win on court four. GCU answered back with a win on court two but Doris Aleksovska picked up the win on court five to tie the match at two. 
 
GCU got a point with a win on court one but Lasya Patnaik got the win on court six tying the match at three and making the match on court three a winner-take-all.
 
Marine Darzyan won her first set against Martina Lo Pumo and then found herself trailing in the second but rallied to tie the match at 6-6 forcing the tiebreaker. Darzyan and Lo Pumo went back and forth but it was Darzyan who came away with the 8-6 win in the tiebreaker to clinch the win.
 
Scouting No. 2 UMKC
UMKC enters the championship match with a 14-9 record on the season after defeating Seattle U 4-1 on Saturday.
 
UMKC has the WAC Women's Player of the Year in Aliona Ladutska after posting a 16-4 singles record while going 5-0 in WAC play. UMKC has three others with double-digit victories in singles play in Katie Fries, Melinda Johnson, and Yana Grechkina.
 
In doubles, Ball and Thanushree Vale have teamed up for a 9-9 record this spring. Grechkina and Johnson have posted an 8-12 record with Fries and Ioanna Lathouri posting a 7-3 record. 
 
To go along with Ladutska, Fries and Vale were named to the All-WAC First Team in singles. Ball was named to the All-WAC Second Team.
 
Round Two
UTRGV and UMKC faced off earlier this year and it was UTRGV who gave UMKC its only WAC loss this season.
 
UTRGV picked up the 4-3 victory at home in the first WAC Cluster of the season. 
 
Dominique Ibarra, Anastasia Belyaeva, and Doris Aleksovska picked up singles victories after sweeping the doubles matches. 
 
And the Award Goes to…
UTRGV came away with six WAC awards, as voted on by the WAC coaches.
 
UTRGV head coach Sonia Hahn was named WAC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year after leading the team to a 13-8 regular season record and a 5-0 record in WAC play. UTRGV earned the first round by and its first-ever WAC Regular Season Championship.
 
Dominique Ibarra and Anastasia Belyaeva were named to the All-WAC First Team in singles while Lasya Patnaik earned All-WAC Second Team singles honors. Belyaeva and Patnaik teamed up to earn All-WAC First Team honors in doubles and Esparza and Aleksovska took home All-WAC Second Team doubles honors.
 
The All-Time Series
UTRGV is 6-1 all-time against UMKC in a series that dates back to 2014. 
 
The only win for UMKC came last season when it won 6-1 in Kansas City. 
 
Globetrotters
UTRGV currently has eight student-athletes on the roster representing seven different countries, including the Macedonia, Mexico, Russia, Spain, India, Germany and Denmark.
 
Next Up
The winner will go on to represent the WAC in the NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament, which starts on May 11.

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