Eastern Washington University's women's tennis team concluded the second tournament of their fall season at the Long Beach State Invitational over the weekend.
"We had a good weekend of matches at Long Beach State," head coach Dustin Hinson said. "We have a lot of work to do moving forward but it was good to gain some valuable match experience this weekend against good competition."
In Singles Flight A, juniors Janaya Smith and Rachel Swindell represented the Eagles. Smith made it the semi-finals on the consolation side of the bracket after losing in the first round to Skayla Alcon from California State University in Northridge (3-6, 4-6). She continued to the semi-finals by defeating Sara Khattab from University of California in Riverside (4-6, 6-1, 7-5). Smith fell to Julie Gerard from Long Beach State (1-6, 2-6) for her last singles match of the tournament.
Swindell lost her first match to Hayley Thompson of LBSU (1-6, 0-6) and also fell to Daniela Morales from San Diego University in the second round.
In Singles Flight B, sophomore Faye Worrall and senior Erin Blessing were representing Eastern. Worrall lost her first match to Maren Heigo from LBSU (0-6, 1-6) and also lost her second match against Susie Baklini from Grand Canyon University (2-6, 2-6).
Blessing made it to the quarterfinals for the consolation side of the bracket. She lost to Anna Romeka from Loyola Marymount University (2-6, 1-6) in the first round, but moved onto the quarterfinals to play Anderson from USD (3-6, 6-0).
Freshman Valentina Sottile was the lone Eagle to advance in the winning side of a bracket by defeating Marie Deleval from GCU in the Singles Flight C. She then fell to Laura Eales form LBSU (1-6, 3-6) in the second round. Freshman Marta Heinen also represented the Eagles in the same flight, falling to Gema Garcia from USD and Taylor Rees from Portland State.
Senior Katrina Domingo made it to the finals on the consolation draw in the Singles Flight D bracket, falling to Arpe Bagumyan from CSUN in the finals (3-6, 3-6). Domingo defeated Lisa Nosenko from CSUN (3-6, 3-6) and made it to the finals by default.
Smith and Domingo played together in doubles play in the Doubles Flight A. They made it to the final round on the consolation draw until falling to a team from Portland University, 2-6. They defeated teams from GCU and Portland State beforehand.
Swindell and Blessing were also a doubles team, falling to teams from LBSU (3-6) and UCR (5-7).
Other doubles teams for EWU were Worral/Heinen and Sottile/Lopez. Sottile and Lopez made it to the finals on the consolation side in the Doubles B Flight bracket. They defeated teams from CSUN (6-3) and UCR (6-3) before falling in the finals match to another CSUN team, 2-6. Worral and Heinen fell to PSU, 2-6 and CSUN, 6-7.
"We are going to continue to work on our match tactics and playing with a purpose out there on the court." Hinson said. "We have a lot of matches ahead of us and we are working hard and enjoying the experience."
Next up for the Eagles is the ITA Northwest Regional in Stanford, Calif. on Oct. 21 – 24.
