LTVN’s Aidan Pham recaps the H-E-B Invitational.

Baylor sent three players to the North Carolina tournament, the first ITA event of the year. Sophomore Zuzanna Kubacha opened the Bears’ trip Saturday, battling back from a 6-2 loss in her first set to beat Michigan State’s Matilde Marais in Round 1 before falling to Ohio State’s Teah Chavez in the second.

Junior Kennedy Gibbs knocked out Dartmouth’s Peyton Capuano in three sets before losing a sweep to Arizona’s Midori Castillo. Freshman Na Dong lost to Iowa’s Marisa Schmidt in two after a hard-fought first set.

Gibbs and Dong, the No. 76 doubles pair in the country, fell to Florida’s Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee in the first round. Dudeney and Spee are set up well for a deep run after defeating Oklahoma’s Alina Shcherbinina and Salakthip Ounmang, currently ranked No. 37 nationally.

Back at the Hurd Tennis Center, Baylor finished 10-10 in singles and 5-5 in doubles behind a strong performance from freshman Wenfei Yu, who went 3-0 in singles and 2-1 in doubles alongside Sierra Berry. The freshman from Beijing was playing in her first-career collegiate tournament.

Senior Liubov Kostenko and junior Lauren Littell also played big roles over the weekend. Kostenko finished 2-1 in both singles and doubles with Brooke Thompson; Littell went 2-1 in singles and split her doubles matches alongside freshman Nanaka Sato.

The ITA Championship and H-E-B Invitational officially mark the beginning of the Bears’ foray into a revamped NCAA tennis calendar that will – for the first time – feature Individual Championships in the fall. That tournament will be held at the Hurd Tennis Center Nov. 19-24. For now, the Bears’ next scheduled competition is the ITA Texas Regional Championship in Fort Worth on Oct. 10-14.