The women’s tennis team started off its fall season with an impressive performance at the Baylor Fall Invitational. Six of SMU’s players competed in Waco this past weekend, including returning Mustangs Natalia Bubien, Kristen Reid and Monica Neveklovska. Freshmen competitors included Hilary Collins, Pavi Francis and Claire Reitsch.

The tournament was comprised of three singles draws, gold, green, and white, and two doubles draws. Bubien advanced to the quarterfinals of the gold draw, beating Christine Dao of Rice and Karine Ionesco on her way. She fell to Top 20 player Zuzana Cerna of Boston University, who was seeded No. 2 in the Invitational.

Newcomer Claire Reitsch took the green singles draw title. Seeded fourth in the draw, Reitsch had a bye in the first round. In the round of 16 she defeated Kalei Gora of Lee (6-4, 6-1) and moved on to dominate Lakann Wagley of Texas Tech (6-1, 6-4). Reitsch faced No. 3 seed Tiffany Lee of Rice in the final.

Sophomore Monica Neveklovska was seeded No. 1 in the white draw, where she played Brittany Baldy of OU in the semifinals. Neveklovska toppled Baldy 6-3, 6-2 before meeting the No. 2 seed Thalia-Diaz Barriga of Tulsa in the final. Both players fought hard, but Barriga pulled out the victory 7-6, 7-5.

Neveklovska teamed up with freshman Hilary Collins to play doubles in the white draw. The Mustangs defeated the No. 2 seeded team from Texas Tech in the semifinal round 8-5. The SMU duo advanced to the final where they fell to unseeded Tanya Roberts and Kaltrina Halbuzi of Lamar 9-7.

Freshman Pavi Francis fell in the gold consolation round of 16 while sophomore Kristen Reid lost to Bianca Gorbea of Louisville in the green round of 16.

The women’s tennis team heads to UNT on Friday to participate in the North Texas Invitational.