Kats Show Well At ITA Regionals
10/27/2016 11:54:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Results
WACO, Texas – The Sam Houston State Bearkats tested themselves against the best in the area over the weekend and came away with a strong showing at the ITA Regional Tournament at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The Kats saw two players advance to the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket in the 128-player field that was comprised of teams throughout the region. Khee Yen Wee and Ema Barkovic each moved deep into the consolation bracket, while Barkovic joined forces with Mila Milanovic to advance three rounds into the consolation bracket on the doubles side of things.
Wee fell into the second bracket after falling to Rice's Priya Niezgoda (6-3, 6-3) before picking up a pair of wins over Alejandra Landaluce (6-2, 6-2) of Incarnate Word and Lusine Chobanyan (6-1, 7-5) of UT Arlington. The win over Chobanyon pushed her into the quarterfinals where she ran into Maria Kononova of North Texas, falling 6-2, 6-2.
For Barkovic, she dropped into the second bracket after facing the No. 3 seed in the tournament in the second round and falling to Texas Tech's Garbiela Talaba (6-1, 6-1). She then took advantage of a pair of withdraws to advance her into the fourth round of the consolation bracket where she squared off with Stephen F. Austin's Denise Maxl. She knocked off Maxl (6-2, 6-2) in straight sets before bowing out with a defeat at the hands of UT Arlington's Valeria Lopez.
Other singles matches of note include Fabienne Gettwartt who took down one of Abilene Christian's top players, Whitney Williams, (6-2, 6-1) in straight sets in the opening round of the tournament before falling to Rice's Wendy Zhang, the tournament's fifth-seeded player, a round later. Milanovic also pulled out a first-round win, blowing by Houston's Ana Glumac (6-2, 7-6) before taking Baylor's Rhiann Newborn to three sets in the second round.
On the doubles side, Gerttwartt and Carrie Casey teamed up to knock off Lauren Smith-Hidalgo and Darinka Tiboldi of SFA (8-3) in the round of 64 before Texas Tech's Alba Cortina Pou and Lynn Kiro knocked off the Bearkat duo in comeback fashion a round later.
The ITA Regionals concludes the fall portion of the season for the Bearkats. They will kick off the spring season on January 13 when they host Prairie View A&M.
