The Yale women’s tennis team did not have the success they had hoped for this weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association East Regionals in Philadelphia. The tournament hosted the top six players from each team including Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Drexel, Boston College and every Ivy League school.

Ninety-six women automatically made it into the main draw, leaving just 32 who proceeded to qualify for the semifinal round. Janet Kim ’09 was the Bulldog to make it furthest in the contest, losing in the fourth round to UVA’s Emily Fraser and failing to move on to the quarterfinals.

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“Our losses could be attributed to the high quality of tennis being played this weekend,” Lindsay Clark ’11 said. “It was the cream of the crop from the region.”

Vicki Brook ’12 said that it was a good experience for the team to be immersed in such a highly competitive environment.

After an outstanding performance last weekend at the USTA Invitational in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., the Yale women hoped to walk away with more victories than they ultimately did.

Head coach Danielle McNamara said that given the amount and quality of the women’s practices since the beginning of September, she had high expectations for the past weekend.

“We’ve been training with this tournament in mind,” she said. “We wanted the peak of our season to be at Regionals.”

But rather than resigning their efforts after one tough weekend, the women remain optimistic. Clark and McNamara both agreed that they would use their losses from Regionals as momentum to fuel their preparation for the upcoming Yale Invitational that starts Friday.

“I think we’re going to take this week of practice to continue working on being aggressive and playing smart,” Clark said. “Hopefully we can see that translated into our results this weekend. We want to enjoy the fruits of our endeavors.”

In order to fully reap the benefits of their many hours of practice, the women feel that they must put this weekend’s losses behind them.

They also plan to work on consistency, both in singles and doubles games. The women lost a doubles point in an Ivy League match last year, which affected all the work they had done during the season.

“As a team I think we need to work on our confidence,” Brook said. “We may have been a bit over-awed [by] the standard of play last weekend but we should take pride in the knowledge that we’ve worked very hard.”

Clark’s goals are more personal. She said that playing tournaments in the fall season is less about results than playing to the best of her ability.

This weekend, the Elis hope to deliver a stronger show of matches on home courts in the last tournament of the fall season.

“I’m glad we have another event to get back out there and get us motivated,” McNamara said.