UNLV roundup: Zhu in Freeman Memorial tennis quarterfinals

UNLV senior Aiwen Zhu won twice Friday to advance to the quarterfinals of the 17th annual Freeman Memorial women’s tennis tournament at Fertitta Tennis Complex.

Zhu opened with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over third-seeded and 49th-ranked Anna Turati of Texas and then beat Caroline Lampl of top-ranked Stanford 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

Rebels senior Anna Bogoslavets started with a 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth-seeded and 63rd-ranked Tijana Spasojevic of Texas before losing 6-2, 6-2 to Stanford’s Melissa Lord.

UNLV sophomore Izumi Asano also won her first match, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 over Florida’s Sydney Berlin, before falling 6-4, 6-1 to fourth-seeded and 53rd-ranked Petra Granic of Texas.

The Rebels have two players left in Flight Two: Alex Kalachova downed UCLA’s Katie LaFrance 6-0, 6-2, and Samantha Li had a bye.

In doubles, UNLV split two first-round matches, with Zhu and En-Pei Huang winning 7-5 over Texas’ Turati and Katie Poluta.

Individual competitors in the three-day tournament hail from teams that include half of the top dozen from the season’s initial ITA rankings: Stanford, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 8 UCLA and No. 11 Florida.

TRACK AND FIELD

At Flagstaff, Ariz., Destiny Smith-Barnett ran a program-best 7.17 seconds in the 60-meter dash en route to one of six wins by the Rebels in the Lumberjack Team Challenge.

Smith-Barnett’s time tied the Mountain West record shared by San Diego State’s Ashley Henderson (2017) and Texas Christian’s Jessica Young (2011) and is the best registered nationally this season.

Avi’Tal Wilson-Perteete won the 400 in 56.01 seconds and teamed with Najia Hudspeth, Nylia Hudspeth and Alexis Surrell to win the 1,600 relay in 3 minutes, 46.27 seconds.

Jonon Young won the triple jump with a distance of 39 feet, 10.75 inches, which ranks third in the program’s outdoor performance list.

Jada Hicks won the 60 hurdles in 8.34 seconds, and Elisa Rovere won the 800 in 2:18.35.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

At Buchanan Natatorium, UNLV competed against Denver and UC Santa Barbara, with the women’s team beating Denver 76-72 and falling to UCSB 77-71 and the men’s team losing to Denver 91-57 and to UCSB 102.5-45.5.

For the women, freshman Filio Raftopoulou won the 300-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 53.13 seconds and teamed with classmate Carissa Armijo, Lauren Smith and Julia Filippova to win the 800 freestyle relay in 7:27.37.

Armijo won the 200 individual medley in 2:06.26, and Kate Afanasyeva won the 50 backstroke in 26.04 seconds.

For the men, freshman Ivan Zukov won the 200 individual medley in 1:52.88.