Cougars Head to Seattle for Husky Invite

THIS WEEK (October 7, 2021): The Cougars continue their 2021 fall season as they travel to Seattle to compete in the 2021 Husky Invite, Oct. 8-10 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center Tennis Courts. Play begins at 9 a.m. Friday with a round of singles and two rounds of doubles.
 
HUSKY INVITE FIELD DRAWS SET: Joining WSU in the 2021 Husky Invite field are DePaul, Oregon, Portland State and host Washington. WSU's entire roster will compete, with the doubles pairings being Michaela Bayerlova and Savanna Ly-Nguyen, Yang Lee and Fifa Kumhom, and the freshman duo of Maxine Murphy and Hania Abouelsaad.
 
HUSKY INVITE FORMAT: The Husky Invite will feature a round of singles and doubles each day against multiple teams. Washington State will begin play Friday at Noon with doubles against Washington, another round of doubles against DePaul will be played at 1 p.m. followed by singles matches against Oregon at 2 p.m. Saturday the Cougars will face Oregon doubles at Noon and then at 1 p.m. will contest DePaul in singles. Sunday will see WSU and Washington face off in singles play at Noon.
 
LAST TIME OUT: WSU is playing their first event since hosting the Cougar Classic, Sept. 24-26. In that tournament, senior Savannah Ly-Nguyen captured the Crimson Flight singles title while sophomore Fifa Kumhom came away with the Gray Flight singles title.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: For the 2021-22 season the Cougars will have two new players to accompany the four returners. The returning roster consists of fifth-year senior Michaela Bayerlova, seniors Yang Lee and Savanna Ly-Nguyen, sophomore Fifa Kumhom and freshmen Hania Abouelsaad and Maxine Murphy.
 
BAYERLOVA STARTS 2021 AT NO. 47 IN ITA PRESEASON RANKING: Washington State fifth-year senior Michaela Bayerlova begins the 2021-22 season No. 47 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason rankings. Bayerlova, from Krumbach, Germany, finished her 2021 season ranked No. 69. Earlier this summer, she captured her first professional title since 2019, and fifth of her career, when she won the International Tennis Federation Frederiksberg tournament in Frederiksberg, Denmark. Following that event, Bayerlova reached a career-best 530 world ranking.
 
COACH ATAWO: Raquel Atawo begins her first season as head coach of the Cougars after being named to the position July 2, 2021. Atawo arrived in Pullman having spent last season as the assistant coach at Auburn and prior to that, spent 15 years on the WTA Tour, where she reached at NO. 10 world ranking in doubles.