Yale Athletics

The Yale Women’s Tennis team has been in action the past two weekends, putting up strong performances at both the ITA Regional tournament and the Brown Invitational.

From Oct. 10 through Oct. 13, the Bulldogs competed in Cambridge, Mass., at Harvard’s ITA New England Regionals. There, they had a pair of quarter final appearances, one in singles and one in doubles. The following weekend, Yale traveled to Providence, R.I., for the Brown Invitational. The teams competing included Rutgers, Brown, UMass and Rhode Island. 

Yale had three Bulldogs in action on the first day of qualifying matches at the ITA New England Regionals. Julia Werdiger ’28 led the way and picked up two victories to secure a spot in the main draw. 

She handily defeated Elise Wong of Dartmouth 7–5, 6–2 before beating Boston College’s Nadia Barteck 6–4, 6–4. Jamie Kim ’25 and Sophia Zaslow ’26 also competed in singles but fell to their opponents from Harvard and Dartmouth, respectively. 

Day two of the tournament saw more Bulldog triumphs. Shyla Aggarwal ’27 started the day on a strong note, defeating Boston University’s Ellie Gyuro 6–0, 3–6, 6–2. Erin Ha ’27 picked up a victory in straight sets against Providence’s Camila Barrera Aguirre, winning 6–2, 6–2. Werdiger kept cruising, defeating Niagara’s Maria Melo 6–3, 6–0. Ann Wright Guerry ’26 steamrolled Aina Garriga Martinez of Sacred Heart 6–0, 6–1 and Mirabelle Brettkelly ’25 rounded out the day by obliterating Andrea Vargas of Siena College 6–0, 6–0. 

On the doubles side, three duos from Yale advanced to the next round. Rebecca Lynn ’26 and Kim defeated their opponents from Sacred Heart. Werdiger and Ha came up on top over their opponents from Quinnipiac and Aggarwal, and Angela Huang ’28 easily handled their opponents from Army. 

In the Round of 32, Yale claimed another handful of victories in singles and doubles. Brettkelly continued her strong play with a victory over Seren Agar of Boston College, winning 6–3, 6–0. Aggarwal defeated Dartmouth’s Peyton Capuano 6–4, 7–5. Julia Werdiger won her fourth singles match of the week, beating Boston University’s Uma Bakaiyte 6–3, 3–6, 6–4. Ann Wright Guerry rounded out the singles play by moving past Quinnipiac’s Willow Renton 7–5, 6–4.

Werdiger and Ha were the sole Yale team to move on in doubles as they defeated Isabella Venter and Tamara Bachmann of St. Bonaventure. 

In the Round of 16 on the singles side, Brettkelly was the only Bulldog to come out on top over her opponent. She quickly beat Maxi Duncan after returning from behind in the first set to win 7–5. She won her second set 6–1 to move on to the quarterfinals. 

On day four, Yale had one competitor in the final eight singles and a duo remaining in the Round of 16 for doubles. Brettkelly fell to Serafima Shastova of Syracuse 7–6, 6–0, and Werdiger and Ha narrowly fell to Cornell 8–6. Nevertheless, it was a successful showing for the Women’s team. 

The Yale Women’s Tennis team competed in the Brown Invitational the following weekend. Dominance was the name of the game on the first day, as the Bulldogs went six-for-six against Rhode Island. Aggarwal defeated Sophie Herman 6–2, 6–1, Ha beat Katharina Speith 6–4, 6–2, Huang cruised past Stephanie Hylton 6–1, 6–1 and Sophia Zaslow won 6–2, 6–2 over Ava Grnja. 

In doubles, Aggarwal and Ha defeated Spieth and Fernando of Rhode Island of 6–3, and Huang and Zaslow came out on top over Herrman and Nielander 7–5. cq

On the second day of the invite, Ha was the lone victor in singles. She defeated Mai Nguyen of Rutgers 6–4, 6–2. Aggarwal, Huang, and Zaslow all fell to their opponents from Brown. 

In doubles, Ha continued her dominant weekend, finishing with a perfect 4-0 record as she teamed up with Aggarwal to defeat their opponents from Rutgers 7–6.

“Personally starting out the fall season with an injury was really discouraging but the past weekend helped me gain some confidence,” Ha wrote to the News. “Overall, it was definitely a mental and physical challenge for the team with sickness spreading on top of injuries, but I was really proud of the way everyone showed up and played throughout the weekend.”

The Bulldogs were slated to take on UMass on the third day of the Brown Invitational, but UMass withdrew from the invite, and Yale’s weekend finished early. 

The Yale Women’s Tennis team is back in action on Oct. 25 when they travel to Philadelphia to play in the Ivy League ITA Masters Qualifying hosted by UPenn. 

BRODY GILKISON