Desiree Tran wins three matches at Regionals

LAS VEGAS – BYU junior Desiree Tran won her first three matches to advance to the Round of 16 in the USTA Division I Women’s Mountain Regional Championships and the rest of the women’s tennis team tallied to win seven additional matches throughout the week on UNLV’s campus.

“We let our emotions get the best of us in a few matches this weekend, but I am confident in these girls and this team,” head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. “We are going to have a great season come January.”

On Wednesday, Tran quickly topped Claire Uhle from Northern Colorado, 6-0, 6-1. Due to rain delays, Tran’s next victory didn’t come until Friday when she came from behind to defeat Sophie Stevens from Nevada, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. In the third round, also on Friday, Tran came out on top against Colorado’s Julyette Steur, 7-6, 6-4.

“Desiree played some of the best tennis I’ve seen her play,” Jones-Spencer said. “She is really on top of her game right now.”

Tran’s first loss came on Saturday as she fell to Nives Pavlovic from UNLV, 7-6, 6-4.

Senior Aubrey Paul and sophomore Morgan Anderson were the other two Cougars to advance in singles play. Paul won in three sets against Boise State’s Megan Lalone, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Anderson defeated Utah State’s Ashley Stuhlmann, 6-2, 6-3.

Paul couldn’t top Wyoming’s Alexander Kovacs in the second round of singles on Friday, as she fell, 6-2, 6-4. Anderson lost to Sarah Pham from Utah, 6-4, 6-2.

In the first round of doubles play, Tran and sophomore Meghan Sheehan-Dizon defeated Montana’s Precious Gbadmosi and Maddy Murray, 8-4. The duo also won its second round match against Colorado’s Winde Janssens and Steur, 8-5. After a bye in the first round, another BYU team, Anderson and freshman Mackenna Maddox, squeaked past Michaela Bezdickova and Maria Sablina from New Mexico, 9-7.

Both teams lost in the Round of 16 – Anderson and Maddox fell to Nevada’s Emma Verberne and Michelle Okhremchuck, 8-4, while Tran and Sheehan-Dizon lost to Utah’s Paige Miles and Tereza Bekerova, 8-5.

The complete results from the tournament can be viewed on the UNLV tennis schedule page.

The team’s next tournament is Nov. 9-10 at the Arizona State Tournament in Tempe, Ariz.