UNLV roundup: Women’s tennis team opens region tournament

UNLV senior En-Pei Huang won a Flight One singles match and teamed with junior Izumi Asano for a doubles victory Wednesday on the first day of the five-day ITA Mountain Region women’s tennis championships at Fertitta Tennis Complex.

Members of 20 Western teams are facing off as individuals through Sunday on 12 courts each day in singles and doubles.

Huang swept Idaho State’s Alexandra Arkhipov 6-0, 6-0 and teamed with Asano for an 8-3 win over Weber State’s McKenna Lloyd and Yuuna Ukita.

The Rebels advanced three other doubles teams: senior Samantha Li and sophomore Connie Li, freshmen Sara Alajbegovic and Leslie Fujitani, and sophomore Hsuan Yu Lin and senior Rachel Lee.

In Flight One singles, Asano lost 6-4, 7-6 to Montana’s Olivia Ooosterbaan, and Connie Li lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to Texas-El Paso’s Vanessa Valdez.

UNLV had two winners in Flight Two singles. Samantha Li defeated Idaho State’s Adrienne Pavek 6-0, 6-1, and Lin blanked Northern Colorado’s Elisabeth Walsh 6-0, 6-0. Alajbegovic received a first-round bye.

Also in Flight Two, Lee lost 6-2, 6-2 to Southern Utah’s Chloe Purkiss, and Fujitani lost by the same score to Idaho’s Maggie Chen.

The ITA regional championships feature more than 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, junior and community colleges in 85 events around the country.

In Division I, regional doubles champions and singles champions and finalists qualify for the season-ending Oracle ITA National Fall Championships.