Five members of the Tech women’s tennis team represented the team at the ITA/Riviera All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. on Oct. 2-10.
Senior Sasha Krupina, juniors Viet Ha Ngo, Caroline Lilley and Jillian O’Neill and sophomore Elizabeth Kilborn competed, with Ngo and O’Neill both advancing to the third round of prequalifying singles draw on Saturday Oct. 2.
The Jackets got off to a rough start on Saturday with a difficult match in the prequalifying doubles round. Kilborn and O’Neill paired to play Louisiana-Monroe, resulting in a 9-8 loss for Tech.
O’Neill returned to play in the prequalifying singles rounds along with Ngo. Wins for both players, including O’Neill’s triumph over the No. 7 seed, Anamika Bhargava of Pepperdine 6-2, 6-0, and Ngo’s wins over Aleksandra Malyarchikova of SMU and North Florida’s Aline Berkenbrock, ensured Tech a spot in the pre-qualifying rounds on Sunday.
Lilley won her first round match on Saturday against UCLA’s Maya Johannson, 6-2, 6-2. She, however, lost in the second round to Connie Chieh Yu Hsu from UPenn.
On Sunday, O’Neill defeated Sofie Oyen of Florida with a straight sets victory 7-5, 6-2, and earned the Jackets a position in the qualifying singles draw of the championship.
Ngo lost her third round match to Joanna Mather 6-2, 6-4, also from Florida.
With a final loss from O’Neill (7-5, 6-4) on Tuesday, Oct. 5, the Jackets ended their run in the singles division.