Over the weekend, the men’s and women’s tennis teams both competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regionals hosted at Stanford University. The tournament began Thursday, Oct. 19 and wrapped up Monday, Oct. 23.
“(ITA Regionals) feature all the teams in our region so it’s all the best players in our region competing in this event. It’s a great opportunity for our student-athletes to test themselves against the best in our geographical area,” men’s and women’s head tennis coach Adam Reeb said.
The women’s team struggled early in the ITA Regionals, but were able to turn it around by the final day. In singles matches, only senior Michelle Lui made it to the round of 64. She faced and fell to Janice Shin of the host university, Stanford. Only three of the women’s doubles teams made it to the round of 64 and none advanced past it.
“We recovered from a hard first day and got better as the tournament went on, which was exciting to see. We’ve got a great team here, we just need to keep the self-belief high and trust in our games and we’ll have an awesome spring season,” Reeb said after his women’s team went 6-0 in their singles matches on the final day of play.
The men’s team succeeded in regionals. In singles matches, senior Matt Alderson and freshman Emilio Monroy both made it to the round of 64 before being eliminated. Freshman Colton Weeldreyer made a strong run in the tournament, making it to the round of 32 before falling to Dominic Barretto of Cal. Weeldreyer is the first Seattle University men’s tennis athlete to advance to the round of 32 since Seattle U became a Division I school.
Two of the men’s doubles teams advanced to and were eliminated in the round of 16. The two pairs who advanced were the underclassmen pair of Trenton Nield and Weeldreyer, along with fellow underclassmen pair Arshak Ghazaryan and Monroy.
“We had more main draw wins this year than we’ve ever had before, and we competed pretty strongly in most matches. Overall, I think it was a good showing by the guys. We’re showing we’re right there in the mix with all of these teams, and we have even more motivation and goals to strive for in the spring,” Reeb said.
Both tennis teams will continue to practice until Thanksgiving break and will return for their main season in January. The main season means a switch from tournament play to dual matches. In these dual matches, the Redhawks will face individual schools rather than a field of schools as they do in the tournaments played this Fall.
Women’s tennis will start their main season Jan. 19 when they face South Dakota at home. Men’s tennis begin their main season Jan. 27 away facing Portland State. They have one more tournament to play in this fall. The men’s team will attend the Bulldog Classic Oct. 27 through Oct. 29, hosted by Gonzaga University in Spokane.
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