Miseviciute leads pack in finals at Hurricane Invitational

TULSA, Okla – Aurelija Miseviciute’s finals win pace the University of Arkansas tennis team’s final day as Lady’Backs brought home three championships from the Tulsa Hurricane Invitational.

In the Gold Draw, Miseviciute shutdown Tulsa’s Alexandra Kichoutkin, 6-0, 6-0. The other singles championship came via the Blue Draw when senior Audrey Bordeleau defeated fellow teammate, freshman Delia Demaschin, 6-2, 6-0.

The Lady’Backs last win came in doubles. Junior Ela Kaluder and Miseviciute participated in their second straight doubles finals, this time winning by topping teammates senior Maryori Franco and junior Nanar Airapetian, 8-2.

“We had a lot of bright spots like we did last weekend,” said head coach Michael Hegarty. “But in my opinion we’ve yet to see everything this team has put together, but that’s the reason we’re playing these tournaments.”

Although two of the three finals loses came at the hands of Lady’Back teammates, Arkansas finished 4-0 in consolation matches.

Franco was able to hold off Agostina Santoro of Tulsa, 6-2, 6-3, in the third place match of the Gold Draw. In the Blue Draw consolation, Airapetian defeated Kansas State’s Katerina Kudlackova, 6-3, 6-2. Melissa Hoffmeister finished off the consolation winning in singles with a win over Oral Roberts’s Rafaela Souza, 7-6, 6-4, in the Black Draw.

In doubles consolation, the Black Draw consisted of Bordeleau and Hoffmeister finishing off Tulsa’s Julie Westfall and Jie Zeng, 8-2.

The only loss in finals that came at the hands of another team happened when Ela Kaluder dropped a heartbreaker to Oklahoma State’s Iryna Tkachenko.

Arkansas’ next tournament doesn’t take place until the ITA All-American Championships from October 3-7, the Lady’Backs will take place in pre-qualifying this weekend. For more information on Lady Razorback tennis be sure to stay tuned to LADYBACKS.com.