The women’s tennis team competed for the first time in three weeks in the ITA South Region Championships from October 24-27, hosted by the University of Georgia. Twenty-one different schools in the south participated in the event and included 14 players that are ranked in the ITA Top 125 singles in addition to 4 doubles teams ranked in the ITA Top 50.
On the first day of tournament play, senior Christy Striplin and sophomore Noelle Hickey won three straight doubles matches after defeating doubles teams from Samford (8-4), Georgia State (8-4) and Alabama (8-4). Sophomore Sasha Krupina and freshman Viet Ha Ngo made it to their second doubles match after an 8-2 win over Florida Gulf Coast, but were not able to pull out a close one in their second match over Jacksonville (9-2). On Sunday’s play continuing doubles, Striplin and Hickey won a match in which they were closely contested all the way through. Striplin and Hickey defeated Miami’s Bianca Eichcorn and Michaela Kissell 9-8 (10) and put the themselves into the tournament finals. The team didn’t fare well in the finals on Monday, dropping to Florida’s Marrit Boonstra and Megan Alexander 8-0.
On Saturday, the opening day of singles, Striplin, Hickey and freshman Irina Falconi each won a pair of matches to advance them in to the ITA Regional Round of 16. On Sunday’s play, both Striplin and Hickey were able to win a match to earn a spot in the quarterfinals, but were unable to move further after both lost their second matches of the day.
The Jackets will see more action this coming weekend as they prepare for the ITA National Indoor Championships and the UNC Invitational.
The men’s team competed a few weeks ago in the ITA Mideast Regional tournament in which sophomores Ryan Smith, Eliot Potvin and Guillermo Gomez, with freshman Kevin King qualified to compete in the round of 64. On October 18, King, Gomez and Potvin were able to win their first matches to make it to the round of 32, but only Gomez was able to win his next match to make it to the round of 16. Gomez defeated UNC’s Clay Donato in the next day of play 7-6, 6-4, but had to withdraw from the tournament after making it to the quarterfinals due to a knee injury he attained. The team pulled him out so that he didn’t injure himself further and to ensure that he could compete in ITA National Indoor Championships this weekend in Charlottesville, Va. The indoor championships started yesterday to close out the Jacket’s fall season.