Fall season ends with solid showing at UNC

That's it. The dust has settled, and the women's tennis team has officially wrapped up the remainder of its fall schedule. And if this fall season is a preview of what's to come, then we're all in for a treat.

This weekend three of the Tigers' nine players attended the annual Kitty Harrison Invitational Tournament, a United States Tennis Association sponsored event hosted by the University of North Carolina. Junior Ivana King, sophomore Kristen Scott and freshman Blakely Ashley represented Princeton at the contest and continued to dominate on the court.

Seventy five players attended the tournament, which was organized into two large singles pools and four smaller doubles pools. The contest was well attended, with players from Kansas, Kentucky, William and Mary, Georgia Tech and Marshall, among the many schools competing.

"This tournament is definitely the most competitive tournament I have ever competed in since I came to Princeton," King said. "Because all the schools were so good, the atmosphere was this intense competitiveness, with teams supporting their players whenever they were on court."

King's first game came against the No. 5 seed, Sanaz Marand of UNC. Marand proved to be a tough competitor and ousted King in the first round of play by scores of 6-4, 6-3.

"I wasn't playing with a purpose on court, and it was like I was just going through the motions," King said.

Driven by her recent defeat, King emerged an entirely new player in the second consolation round, as she ultimately won the bracket in convincing fashion. After a first round bye, she steamrolled her opponent from UNC-Greensboro by scores of 6-1, 6-2. King carried her momentum into her final game against Magda Bresson of William and Mary, whom she narrowly defeated by a score of 9-7 in the eight-game pro-set.

"At that point, I already had several losses against some teams and players whom I thought I should have never lost to, so I went on court not thinking about the score and just played every point one at a time," King said.

King was finally defeated, however, in the final round of the consolation tournament by Elizabeth Ardeva of Kansas, by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

Playing in the other singles pool, Ashley was the No. 5 seed of her group. Ashley sent her first round Kentucky opponent to the consolation pool in straight sets before she found herself locked in a grudge match against UNC-Greensboro's Lisa Suggs.

Ashley handled Suggs in the first set and pulled out a solid 6-2 victory. Refusing to be sent home so easily, however, Suggs surged back to defeat Ashley, 6-3, in the second set. Suggs carried her upstart performance into the tiebreak round where she upset Ashley to take the win.

On the doubles side, the Tigers were less successful, though the tournament did provide them another valuable opportunity to work on their play. Ashley and King teamed up, as they have done previously, to take on a strong team from UNC in the first round.

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Ashley and King couldn't carry their singles success to the doubles court, however, as they fell, 8-1, to Meg Fanjoy and Austin Smith. Still, UNC has a history of dominant play, and Smith ended up winning the overall singles tournament.

Sophomore Kristen Scott competed in the doubles tournament as well, though in a rather untraditional way. Because of Princeton's odd number of entrants, Scott paired up with William and Mary's Lauren Sabacinki to form the No. 4 seed of their doubles pool.

Scott and Sabacinki pulled out a solid win against a Davidson team, but they were stopped in the second round by a strong Marshall team that ultimately won the bracket. Scott's play is a testament to her competitive versatility, even under the extreme conditions in which she is totally unfamiliar with her partner.

With the end of the fall season, Princeton won't face any outside competition until late January, when they travel to Miami, Fla., for the Florida International.

"By including the top teams outside our leagues who are the top in the NCAA, it'll push ourselves to strive to compete with the big players of the NCAA, a goal that I believe is reachable this year or next year," King said.

The Tigers have put in their time this fall season, and now they need only wait for the spring to see it pay dividends.