Washington State hands Eastern women's tennis match defeat

PULLMAN – The Eastern Washington University women's tennis team returns home following a 5-2 deficit in a Jan. 30 match against Washington State at the Hollingbery Fieldhouse in Pullman. The Eagles went 0-3 in doubles play but found success in a pair of freshmen in Jennifer Kida and Scout Mathews as they beat their opponents in singles play, but it was not enough as EWU moves to an 0-2 overall record.

"We played with incredible grit and heart today," Eagles head coach Dustin Hinson said. "We worked so hard over the last couple weeks to prepare for these matches and it showed in the way we competed. We challenged ourselves to control the controllables, which primarily is our effort and our energy out there."

Mathews, who comes from Honolulu, Hawai'i, along with Kida, the California native, collect their first win as Eastern Eagles as they both defeated their opponents in two rounds at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.

Doubles scores had Michaela Bayerlova/Hikaru Sato defeating Louise Waite/Rylee Braeden (6-2), Fifa Kumhom/Pang Jittakoat defeating Renata Gabuzyan/Yasmin Mansouri (6-4) and Melisa Ates/Yang Lee defeating Scout Mathews/Jennifer Kida (6-2).

In singles play, Mathews beat Hikaru Sato (6-3, 6-3) while Kida defeated Fifa Kumhom (6-1, 6-2). WSU notched match wins, with Pang Jittakoat defeating Braeden (6-1, 6-2), Savanna Ly-Nguyen defeating Waite (6-3, 6-2), Melisa Ates defeating Gabuzyan (6-3, 6-1) and Yang Lee defeating Mansouri (6-3, 1-6, 10-7). 

EWU was set to host the University of Montana on Jan. 31, but due to COVID-19 concerns in the UM program, it has been canceled and will not be rescheduled this season. 

The Eagles will travel to Seattle, Wash., to face the Washington Huskies on Feb. 12 with the first serve set to begin at 11 a.m. PT.