Despite a slow start at the USTA National Center Women’s College Invitational last weekend in Flushing, N.Y., the women’s tennis team bounced back on the second day for a 7-4 overall record, including a 6-2 record in singles matches.
“I was much more pleased with [Sunday’s] results,” head coach Chad Skorupka said. “We still have two more weeks to prepare for our fall season-ending competition.”
The Elis’ top seed, Reshmi Srinath ’05, had two singles wins for Yale. On Saturday, she won Yale’s only singles match, defeating Army’s Marissa Limsiaco 6-1, 6-3 in the A flight, but lost to South Carolina’s Chrstyn Lucas in her second match.
“I was happy with the way I competed this weekend,” Srinath said. “But I was a little frustrated that I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that I had to force a third set in my loss against [Lucas].”
Srinath regrouped in time for her consolation match against Penn State Sunday, picking up a straight-set victory.
Also competing in the A flight, Rashmee Patil ’07 had a rough start Saturday morning and dropped her first match against North Carolina 6-2, 6-1. Patil played a much better second match, but was edged out in two consecutive tiebreaks by South Carolina’s Laura Ganzer, 7-6, 7-6. But like her teammates, Patil started to play better as the tournament progressed. In her doubles match, Patil and partner Aimee Kim ’07 cruised past North Carolina State 8-2 in the A doubles flight. Patil then continued her strong play Sunday, winning her match in straight sets.
Captain Stephanie White ’05 also had a solid performance Sunday, winning both of her singles matches against Army and NC State in the C singles consolation bracket.
“We had some bad luck in some matches.” White said. “But overall I thought we could have done better. We need to look at this weekend’s results as motivation to improve.”
The Bulldogs will now have less than two weeks to prepare for the ITA East Regional Tournament in Philadelphia Oct. 22. Traditionally, this has been the most important tournament for the Bulldogs in the fall. Since it is a selective tournament based on individual players’ fall records, the Elis will have to wait until the end of this week, or possibly the beginning of next week, to find out which players have qualified for the tournament. Last year, six Bulldogs qualified.
The singles champion and runner-up, as well as the doubles winner, will advance to the ITA Indoor National Championship in Dallas Oct. 29.
Since the regionals tournament will be played indoors, the Bulldogs have started practicing at their indoor courts to get used to the surface.
“We are going to start practicing inside this week and next week.” Srinath said. “We will also be working on being aggressive and being ready for shorter points.”