SALT LAKE CITY (UNLVRebels.com) – A UNLV doubles team advanced in Thursday's second day of competition at the 2023 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Region Women's Championships being hosted by the University of Utah.
 
Members from 19 western teams are facing off each day in singles and doubles at the Eccles Tennis Center.
 
Fourth-seeded Salsa Aher and Zita Kovacs downed BYU duo Tina Li and Madison Smith, 8-6, to move on to Friday's Round of 16 where they will face Marcella Lopez and Katherine Lyman from host Utah.
 
In singles play, Aher won her Round of 32 match, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, over Sara Akid of Utah but then fell later in the day to Denver's seventh-seeded Britt Pursell, 6-3, 6-3, to close out UNLV's main draw singles action.
 
More than 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges compete across 85 ITA Regional Championships around the country. In Division I, regional doubles champions and regional singles champions and finalists qualify for the season-ending ITA National Fall Championships.
 
The finals are set for Sunday.
 
TEAMS SENDING COMPETITORS
Air Force (AFA)
Boise State (BSU)
Brigham Young (BYU)
Colorado (CU)
Colorado State (CSU)
Denver (DU)
Idaho (ID)
Idaho State (ISU)
Montana (MT)
Montana State (MSU)
Nevada, Reno (UNR)
New Mexico (UNM)
Northern Arizona (NAU)
UNLV (UNLV)
Utah (UU)
Utah State (USU)
Utah Tech (UTT)
Weber State (WSU)
Wyoming (WYO)
 
UNLV RESULTS
FLIGHT ONE SINGLES ROUND OF 32
(14) Salsa Aher (UNLV) def. Sara Akid (UU) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
Anastasia Simonov (DU) def. Coco Zhao (UNLV) 7-5, 7-5
Tina Li (BYU) def. (15) Zita Kovacs (UNLV) 6-4, 6-3
 
FLIGHT ONE SINGLES ROUND OF 16
(7) Britt Pursell (DU) def. (14) Salsa Aher (UNLV) 6-3, 6-3
 
DOUBLES ROUND OF 32
(4) Salsa Aher/Zita Kovacs (UNLV) def. Tina Li/Madison Smith (BYU) 8-6
(15) Macella Lopez/Katherine Lyman (UU) def. Aura Fang/Nikol Mircheva (UNLV) 8-6
Kara Wheatley/Kendall Kovick (BYU) def. Cindy Hu/Coco Zhao (UNLV) 8-5