STANFORD, Calif. -- The Eastern Washington University's women's tennis team had a successful weekend at the ITA Northwest Regional Tournament at Stanford University on Oct. 20-23.
"We had a great weekend at the ITA Northwest Regional Tournament," head coach Dustin Hinson said. "I'm very happy with the progress we made since our last tournament in Long Beach. We had much better performances overall and our results backed that up."
In the main singles draw of the tournament, junior Janaya Smith was the lone victory for EWU, defeating Abigail Wantabe from Fresno State, 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Faye Worrall fell to Sofia Velez from Sacramento State, 6-2, 6-3. Senior Erin Blessing fell to Lani Green from UC Davis, 6-0, 6-3. Junior Rachel Swindell fell to Georgia Lawson from Fresno State 6-2, 6-2. Freshman Valentina Sottile fell to fourth seed Denise Starr from UC Berkeley, 6-2, 6-2. Freshman Marta Heinen fell to Anna Sokiran from University of San Francisco, 6-1, 6-2.
On Saturday, the Eagles shined winning seven out of their nine matches of the day in singles and doubles. Heinen defeated Claire Bouquet from Cal Poly, 6-2, 2-6, 1-0(9). Swindell defeated Elizabeth Yao from Stanford, 6-2, 6-3. Blessing defeated Madison Maloney from Seattle 2-6, 6-3, 1-0(3), Sottile fell to Caraline Patterson from Santa Clara in a battle, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0(9). Worrall defeated Amber Del Rosario from San Francisco, 6-2, 7-5. Smith defeated Kristina Breisacher from UC Davis 2-6, 6-4, 1-0(7).
In the next rounds of the consolation bracket, Smith went on to defeat Emily Soares from the University of Portland 6-1, 6-2. Swindell also defeated her opponent, Bouquet, 7-5, 5-7, 1-0(4). The rest of the Eagles fell to their opponents.
"Every match we play at this stage of the fall season is critical in developing our tactics and confidence and setting the tone for how we are going to approach the dual match season," Hinson said.
In the doubles side of the bracket, EWU was also successful. Heinen and Swindell defeated their opponents from Portland State, 6-2 in the main draw and fell to number one seed's team from UC Berkeley, 8-2. Blessing and Sottile fell to the University of Portland's team 8-5 also in the main draw. Smith and Worrall fell to Portland State's team 8-4.
But the doubles teams got down to business on the consolation side of the bracket. Worrall and Smith defeated Portland's team 8-6, while Blessing and Sottile defeated Sacramento State's team 8-5.
Every Eastern doubles team went on to win their match in the final round of doubles. Worrall and Smith defeated UC Davis' team 8-5. Blessing and Sottile defeated Sac. State's team, 7-5. Heinen and Swindell defeated another Sac. State team 8-5.
"Our doubles showed huge improvement," Hinson said. "We were able to win the last 5 out of 6 doubles matches over some very good opponents. On the singles side, we did a better job of playing smart and figuring out what tactics work for each opponent."
The next tournament for the Eagles will be their last tournament of the fall season at the Gonzaga University Invitational on Nov. 4-6.
"I'm proud of our work ethic on the practice court and on the match court this weekend," Hinson said. "We are ready to keep working hard to prepare for our final tournament of the season at Gonzaga University."
