CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi women's tennis opened play at the 2018 Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas, on Friday. Rain shortened the event but the Islanders'
Carolina Bulatovic advanced to the main draw in both singles and doubles.
"I thought the girls did a great job competing today and did a great job handling the rain delays," Director of Tennis
Steve Moore said. "I thought they stayed mentally tough and did a good job controlling the things they can control. I was really proud for Carolina today, she worked so hard all summer and it really showed today. She played at a very high level in singles and doubles. I also thought Camille played a mentally tough match and is maturing at a fast rate. I was proud of the girls today from the way they competed and cheered for each other like family."
Bulatovic beat Ela Iwaniuk from Northwestern State, the Southland Conference's Newcomer of the Year last season, in Flight 5 of singles, 6-2, 6-2. She and
Vanessa Reinicke knocked off Sam Houston State's duo of Yamalapalli and Chobanyan in Flight 3, to advance in the main draw, 7-6.
Mariya Shumeika overcame multiple rain and lightning delays to beat Ema Dancetovic from Northwestern State in Flight 6, 7-6, 6-2.
Camille Townsend fell to one of South Florida's top players Evelyne Tiron, 6-4, 7-6, in Flight 3 of singles. In Flight 4, Reinicke fell to Nicole Dzenga from South Florida.
In doubles, Townsend and Shumeika fell to the Rice team of Niezgoda and Smirnova, 6-3.
Rice is running a
live video stream but due to court availability, a schedule of the featured video matches will not be available. First round action will resume on Saturday morning.
As a program, the Islanders have reached 10 NCAA Tournaments in program history and captured 22 Southland titles in the last 12 years.
For more information on Islanders Tennis, follow the team on Twitter (
@IslandersTennis), Instagram (
@IslandersTennis) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Tennis).
Â
