Petra Melounova wouldn’t allow injuries to obstruct her path to improvement.

Pain in her shin and knee kept the University of Hawaii sophomore off the court for the Rainbow Wahine tennis team’s fall schedule. Yet she still found a way to make productive use of the unwanted down time.

“She did a lot of basic drills that helped her game,” UH coach Jun Hernandez said, “as simple as tossing herself some balls and hitting it so she’s able to work on the fundamentals of her game and able to realize how to use her body better and able to set up for the ball a lot better.”

Melounova eased back into action this spring and, with improved health, helped lead the Rainbow Wahine to the Big West tournament championship while earning a second consecutive trip to the NCAA singles tournament.

Melounova was one of seven freshmen in the 64-player bracket last year and became the first Rainbow Wahine player to advance to the round of 32. She again secured the Big West’s automatic berth in the tournament as the conference’s highest-ranked player this season and enters this week’s tournament at No. 73 in the Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

The draw will be announced today, with play to begin Wednesday at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Melounova packed last year’s experience with her for the cross-country trip.

“I think I was still very nervous last year, to be honest,” said Melounova, a two-time Big West player of the year. “So I hope I will learn from that and just try to do my best and not really worry about the result.”

Along with Melounova, Mililani graduate and Oregon senior Alyssa Tobita will add to the tournament’s Hawaii ties. Tobita earned one of the 48 at-large bids as the nation’s 42nd-ranked player and is the first Duck selected to the field since 2006.

Although separated by two years in eligibility and half the globe in their upbringing, Melounova (who grew up in Havlickuv Brod in the Czech Republic) and Tobita have a few similarities in their routes to the tournament.

Both spent most of the season in the No. 1 singles position while leading their teams into the NCAA tournament and bolstered their individual resumes with wins over ranked opponents.

Melounova enters the NCAA singles tournament at 14-3 overall and with an eight-match winning streak. She began her run with a 6-2, 6-3 win over then-No. 10 Michaela Gordon of Stanford on March 25 and went 9-1 in Big West matches. She won all three of her matches at the Big West tournament to help the Wahine capture the program’s first conference title and first berth into the NCAA bracket since 2012.

She lined up against Michigan’s Kate Fahey, ranked 29th nationally, in UH’s NCAA tournament match and dropped the first set 6-1. She recovered to win the second set 6-4, but the Wolverines secured a 4-0 team win before Melounova and Fahey could play the third set.

Heading into her second appearance singles tournament, “she’s a bit healthier now (compared to last year),” Hernandez said. “Her footwork has definitely gotten better, and when you have great footwork you’re able get to the ball a lot faster, so she’s able to make better decisions on the court. She’s not forcing it. She playing even smarter as far as shot selection and the most important thing is her mental toughness.

“That’s a tough position,” Hernandez said of playing No. 1 singles. “Any time you’re even .500 in the No. 1 spot, especially with the schedule that we have, you’re doing really well.”

Same goes for Tobita, a second-team All-Pac-12 selection after going 18-11 overall in singles, including 11-7 in the No. 1 position for the Ducks. She was also an alternate for the NCAA doubles tournament with teammate Shweta Sangwan.

A three-time state champion at Mililani (2011-13), Tobita helped Oregon (16-10) reach the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling to No. 3 Duke. Tobita and teammate Rifanti Kahfiani won their doubles match and Tobita was locked in a tight match with sixth-ranked Samantha Harris in the second set when Duke wrapped up the team victory.

She has five wins over players in the top 70 in the country, including a three-set victory over Gordon on April 8.