Women's Tennis: Marable, Bartlett shine in California

Though its season is young, the women’s tennis team is already hitting the road. This past weekend, sophomore Hilary Bartlett and junior Taylor Marable had a strong showing at the ITA All-American doubles tournament in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The duo qualified for the main draw and reached the semifinals of the consolation draw before being eliminated by a tandem from Clemson.

Bartlett and Marable, ranked 21st in the nation in doubles, won three close matches in qualifying rounds. They upset top-ranked qualifying seed No. 9 Ole Miss, 8-6, in the final round to reach the main event.

“Beating the Ole Miss team, the number one seed in the qualifying round, was especially big for us because they had beaten us last spring at NCAAs in three close sets,” Bartlett said. “They move around a lot at net and do a great job of making their opponents feel pressured and uncomfortable … We knew we had nothing to lose, and so we played aggressively and were able to come up with some big shots when it counted.”

After losing to Baylor, 8-3, in the first round of the main draw, the Tigers entered the consolation draw and shocked UCLA, ranked fourth in the nation, 9-7, in the first round. UCLA, which was seeded third, had been upset by unranked BYU in the first round of the main draw and was the solid favorite to win the consolation bracket.

“We traded games in the beginning before going up 7-4, but then we got a little tight, and UCLA tied it up at 7-7,” Bartlett said. “We played a great game to break for 8-7, and then Taylor served out the match for the 9-7 upset.”

On Saturday, Bartlett and Marable succumbed to Clemson, 8-3, in the semi-finals of the consolation draw. Despite falling short of winning the consolation draw, Bartlett said she believes the tournament was beneficial to her and her partner. “Taylor and I played a ton of matches this week and gained a lot of experience against top-10 teams who we might not see again during the regular season until NCAAs,” she said. “To be honest, picking up two top-10 wins this week is much more than I think either Taylor or I was expecting … It was a great opportunity to get some really good wins, and I’m so happy Taylor and I were able to take advantage.”

The rest of the team stayed close to home this weekend, participating in the U.S. Tennis Association Invitational at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

In the “A” division Saturday, senior Melissa Saiontz defeated Buffalo’s Denise Harijanto, 7-6, 6-3, in the first round, before losing to Annie Houghton of Army on a tiebreaker, 6-3, 3-6 1-0 (7-5). On Sunday, Saiontz bowed out in the consolation qualifier, 6-4, 6-2, to Brown’s Bianca Aboubakare.

In the first round of the “B” division, Melissa’s sister, fourth-seeded sophomore Rachel, lost to Jordan Jenkins of Liberty, 6-2, 6-2. In the consolation round, however, Rachel Saiontz easily defeated Jacquelynn Tang of Syracuse, 6-0, 6-2, and Mollie Anderson of Penn, 6-0, 6-0, to reach the semifinals. That match, against Christina Ordaway of Cornell, will be played at a later date.

On the doubles side in the “A” division, Melissa Saiontz and her partner, junior Sarah Hoffman, fell to North Carolina State, 8-2, in the main draw before bowing out to Yale in the quarterfinals of the consolation draw.

Up next on the schedule for the team are the ITA Regional Championships at Yale beginning Oct. 23. “We’ve got two weeks of good practice ahead of us so I expect the team to be prepared and to perform well [at Regionals],” Bartlett said. “We had a good showing there last year, so hopefully we’ll be able to continue the success we had this past week.”