Women's tennis sends four players to ITA Regionals

For four members of the women's tennis team, Fall Break kicked off with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals Tournament over the weekend of Oct. 24-26 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Following an eight-hour long car ride down to Virginia, the members of the tennis team who traveled to the tournament found themselves up against some of the top collegiate players on the East Coast.

Princeton sent two singles players, sophomore Alison Hashmall and freshman Darcy Robertson, to the tournament, as well as the number one doubles team of senior co-captains Alex Kobishyn and Vanti Bhargava. Though none of the Princeton players were seeded in this year's tournament, the women played well. Both Hashmall and Robertson won their first matches but were later defeated, while Kobishyn and Bhargava came back from a 7-2 deficit but still lost their match, 8-5.

Injured for most of the fall season, Hashmall expressed satisfaction with how she played in the tournament.

"Overall I played well and was glad that I went [to Regionals] and got some matches under my bel.," she said.

In the first round of play in the 128-player draw, Hashmall beat the No. 1 singles player from Niagara, Milena Matijevic, 6-1, 6-1. Hashmall explained that she was pleased with her play in the first match, noting that she hit her ground strokes solidly and came to net frequently and confidently.

In the second round Hashmall was defeated by Nida Waseem, the No. 1 player from Boston College and the No. 17 seed in the overall tournament, 6-3, 7-6 (1).

"I felt like I could have won the match if not for a few unnecessary unforced errors," she said. "The key to the match I think was that the girl served better than I did and hit a lot of service winners and aces."

Robertson, a strong player for the Tigers throughout the fall season, expressed similar sentiments regarding her matches. Robertson beat Whitney Simcik from Connecticut in straight sets in the first round. However, in the second round she faced William & Mary's third-seeded player Amy Wei, the No. 8 seed in the tournament.

"I didn't play up to my potential against Wei, but I learned a lot from the match about what I have to do to reach that next level," she said. "I'm excited to train for the next few weeks and to prepare for the spring season."

Bhargava and Kobishyn played the No. 9 seed from Virginia Tech in the first round of play, going up 2-1 to start only to drop six games in a row and find themselves down 7-2. The seniors rallied and came back to make the match 7-5 but lost a break point over a disputed line call and subsequently lost the final game and the match, 8-5.

"The team we played was very tough and they had an advantage in that they were playing on their home courts and hadn't driven eight hours to compete," Kobishyn said. "We played extremely well at the outset of the match — our volleys were crisp, we moved forward, and we were aggressive.

"Vanti and I spoke to each other after going down 7-2 and said that we weren't going down without a fight. We pumped each other up."

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Head coach Louise Gengler noted that the matches were a great experience for the team and demonstrated that the women really can compete at the upper levels of play with some of the top competitors.

"We didn't get the big wins that we would have liked [at Regionals]," Gengler said, "but hopefully we came away knowing that we can compete at those top spots. The girls need to realize that they can play with these top players."

Looking to the spring and future training, Gengler noted, "As a team we'll work on adding more variety to our games and on adjusting to different styles of play. By spring we will be expecting more wins."