DES MOINES, Iowa – Habiba Aly and Nanette Nylund claimed singles titles as South Dakota opened its fall women's tennis schedule Friday through Sunday at the Drake Invitational.
 
Aly, winning the Flight B singles competition, didn't drop a set during her four matches en route to the title. The sophomore posted wins over Augustana's Anca Rusu (7-5, 6-0), Omaha's Marie Kapelevich (6-3, 7-6 (4)), Drake's Kenya Williams (2-1, retired) before defeating Creighton's Erin Epperson, 6-1, 6-3 in the title match.
 
Nylund, the Flight C singles champ, had to battle back from one set down in both her semifinal match and title match. The junior opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over UNI's Vale Caro. She posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Augustana's Annika Teske in the quarterfinals. After dropping the first set of her semifinal against Creighton's Meredith Benson 2-6, she rebounded by taking the next two sets 6-1, 6-4. She posted a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Daisy Philips of UNI in the final.
 
"I am really happy with how well the team played this weekend," coach Brett Barnett said.  "You never really know what to expect the first tournament of the year but our six healthy players played great all weekend. It was a goal to make deep runs in the tournament. 
 
"Habiba and Nanette played really good focused tennis this weekend to win their singles flights.  Winning B/C singles flights shows how deep this team is."
 
The Coyote doubles tandems of Luana Stanciu and Laura Janícková along with Jana Lazarevic and Natka Kmošková each posted 3-1 marks in the Invite.
 
Stanciu/Janickova finished second in the Flight B doubles, winning their first three matches before falling in the finals to Omaha's Emily Behling/Kapelevich, 8-4. 
 
Lazarevic/Kmoskova dropped their first match before winning three in a row to claim fifth place in Flight A. The duo defeated Harri Proudfoot/Caro of Northern Iowa, 8-6, in the fifth place match.
 
"I'm also really happy with how our doubles looked this early in the year," Barnett added. "It has been and will continue to be a big focus in practice.  We have a lot of things to work on and we will be ready for a big challenge at the Gopher Invite this week."
 
Kmoskova posted a 1-2 mark and Lazarevic 1-1 during Flight A singles play. Janickova went 1-1 in Flight B singles, same mark as Stanciu in Flight C. Nylund/Aly combined for a 1-1 mark in Flight A doubles.
 
The Coyotes head to Minneapolis to compete in the Gopher Invitational Sept. 20-23.