The Yale women’s tennis team will participate in the ITA Northeast Regional Championship, a five-day, singles and doubles tournament beginning on Friday and hosted by Harvard University.
The tournament will feature universities from across the Northeast, including a number of Ivy League opponents. Unlike the Bulldog Invitational that Yale hosted on Oct. 4, the ITA Northeast Regionals is an individual tournament, meaning that the Elis will have a limited number of players representing them on the courts. These players will each compete in singles on their own and then team up to form doubles squads, matching up against pairs from the other featured schools. A sole singles champion will be declared upon completion of tournament play, as will a winning doubles pair.
Caroline Lynch ’17 will play in the qualifying singles round on Thursday. She will look to join Annie Sullivan ’14, Ree Ree Li ’16, Madeleine Hamilton ’16, Hanna Yu ’15 and Sherry Li ’17 in the main draw singles round, which begins on Saturday.
Ree Ree Li said that she expected the tournament to be a tough, but exciting challenge for the team.
“We’re expecting to battle in every match,” Ree Ree Li said. “But I think we’ll do really well this weekend.”
Coming off of a successful 2012 campaign, Sullivan said she had high hopes for the tournament.
“We are playing great and are confident that our team will represent Yale very well,” Sullivan said. “Hopefully, a Yale player will take home the singles title, and a Yale team will win the doubles title.”
Sherry Li ’17 also said that she was confident about the Elis’ prospects. She added that although she had only recently begun training with the team, she has made enormous strides in refining her game and learning what it takes to be successful going into a college tournament.
“I couldn’t possibly be in better shape,” Sherry Li said. “It’s the first ever away tournament for Caroline and me, and we’re both really excited.”
Sherry Li added that she was excited to see what the Bulldogs could do at the ITA Regionals, anticipating some stellar play from the team.
“I’m looking forward to the high level of competition, and we’ve all been working really hard since the beginning of the year,” said Li. “I can’t wait to see what kind of damage the YWT will do this weekend.”
Sullivan, Yu, Amber Li ’15, Courtney Amos ’16 and Hamilton represented Yale at the tournament last season. In singles, Sullivan, Yu and Hamilton all advanced to the Round of 32. Hamilton and Yu advanced one stage further to the Round of 16 after trumping their opponents in straight sets.
In doubles, Sullivan and Hamilton worked together to reach the quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed. They knocked off pairs from Penn and Princeton en route to a top-eight finish. Yu also reached the quarterfinals alongside recent graduate Elizabeth Epstein ’13.
This year’s ITA Northeast Regional Championship will be held from Oct. 18 to Oct. 22 at Harvard’s Beren Tennis Center.