Minneapolis, Minn. – South Dakota women's tennis competed in a very competitive field at the Gopher Invite that concluded Sunday.
 
The Coyotes competed in an invite that included Gonzaga, Iowa State, Minnesota, Drake and North Dakota.
 
"The Gopher Invite is always a very strong fall tournament and I'm so proud of how the whole team played this weekend," coach Brett Barnett said. "We didn't back down no matter who we played and they competed so hard in every match and it showed in our results."
 
Eesha Varma, a junior, went 3-0 to claim the singles title in Flight 10 and improve her fall individual record to 5-2.
 
Varma defeated Yana Gaskell of Drake (6-1, 7-6), Emilee Duong of Minnesota (6-1, 6-1) and Gonzaga's Maria Frampton in the finals (3-6, 6-1, 6-0).
 
Yulia Almiron Solano, Sonia Skobkareva, Bea Havlickova and Anna Marija Bukina each went 2-1 in singles play.
 
Almiron Solano, a fifth-year senior, posted a pair of wins over Drake players Yana Gaskell (7-5, 6-3) and Kendall Hunt (6-3, 4-1, retired).
 
Skobkareva, a freshman, defeated North Dakota's Allie Ochotorena (6-4, 6-1) and Drake's Kelsey Neville (6-2, 6-2).
 
Havlickova, a freshman, had a straight set win over Gonzaga's Vlada Medvedcova (6-0, 6-1) and a three-set win over Minnesota's Dalila Said (7-5, 3-6, 6-1).
 
Bukina, a senior, had wins over Jyun-Yi Lee of Drake (6-1, 6-0) and Nore Heinitz of North Dakota (6-4, 6-4).
 
"Singles, everyone stepped up bigtime for us," said Barnett. "Eesha went undefeated and had a huge win over Gonzaga.
 
"Buki played confident smart tennis in her wins. Sonia stepped up and had two great wins over North Dakota and Drake. Jana and Biba played at such a high level in close losses to Minnesota and Bea played her best tennis since arriving beating a top Minnesota player in three sets to close out the tournament.  We played our best singles on the last day of the tournament and we did a great job converting chances and closing out sets."
 
All four Coyote doubles teams posted at least two wins over the three days while fifth-year seniors Jana Lazarevic and Habiba Aly went 3-2.
 
Lazarevic/Aly won the group two doubles flight by defeating Drake's Rebeca Ehn and Kelsey Neville (6-3) along with Minnesota's Emilee Duong and Vasiliki Karvouni (6-3).
 
Almiron Solano/Bukina, Skobkareva/Girbau and Havlickova/Kmoskova went 2-3.
 
Havlickova and Kmoskova won the group three final with wins over Gonzaga's Jenna Sloan/Cate Broerman (7-6, 4-0 in tiebreak) and Minnesota's Rachel Hanford/Karvouni (6-2).
 
"For the second tournament in a row we played some strong doubles and Bea/Nat and Jana/Biba each won a doubles flight beating Minnesota in the final," said Barnett. "The team is doing a great job playing aggressive and being so active at the net now and it's paying off."
 
South Dakota will return to the courts for the ITA Regional on October 21-25 in Iowa City, Iowa.
 
"The team is trusting the process and they are all in with what we want to accomplish this year," said Barnett. "They get a well-deserved break before regionals and we can continue to improve and fine tune some things in their games."