While students linger in the Orange Bubble with unavoidable, pessimistic thoughts about midterms week, the women’s tennis team has bright expectations for the weekend.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Championships, hosted by Yale, begin today. Top players from a range of Division I schools — both Ivy and non-Ivy — will be competing in the tournament.
The ITA Regional Championships herald the exact halfway point in the Tigers’ season. While some may view this time of year as the beginning of fall-athletics wind-down, the Princeton tennis players are showing no signs of slowing down.
Despite the tough upcoming matches against their northeastern counterparts, the Tigers have momentum from their recent wins.
Junior Blakely Ashley and sophomore Rachel Saiontz recently won their doubles flight at the USTA Invitational last weekend, defeating Jesse Adler and Sarah Leonard of Dartmouth 8-3.
A week earlier in the season, junior Taylor Marable and sophomore Hilary Bartlett defeated a top-seeded team from Mississippi, 8-6, in the qualifying doubles finals at the ITA All-America Tournament.
Despite having just returned from recent victories in California and New York, the team’s approach seems to be geared toward long-term seasonal success rather than one or two spectacular wins. Though building momentum coming into the competition certainly gives an advantage, it’s not something to be counted on.
“I definitely think the wins at the USTA Invitational, as well as the wins Taylor and Hilary had at the ITA All-America tournament, will give the girls momentum headed into the weekend,” head coach Megan Bradley said. “It’s important not to focus on the past, but to use those match experiences to prepare us to be successful at regionals.”
“So far the season has gone well,” she added. “I think through the results the girls had at the USTA Invitational and at the ITA All-American, we showed that Princeton tennis is a solid team with great depth. Hilary and Taylor had two top-10 wins at All-American, and Blakely and Rachel won their doubles flight having not played together in any other matches this fall.”
But the Tigers will need more than a good season and quick adaptability to succeed against traditionally tough teams.
Yale won three singles flights in last season’s ITA Regional Championships. At the USTA Invitational last weekend, top-seeded Brown singles player Bianca Aboubakare defeated Princeton senior Melissa Saiontz 6-4, 6-2.
“I think one big advantage is that we have had opportunities in the past few weeks to play some high quality matches against great opponents,” Bradley said, “The team will be facing some tough Ivy opponents, but I think our girls are playing great tennis right now and are ready to step up and compete.”
The women’s tennis team has also undergone a staff transition this year, welcoming Bradley from the University of Miami. Bradley replaces Kathy Sell, who led the Tigers to their first Ivy League and NCAA tournament titles in almost a decade. This larger change is counterbalanced with the fact that there is only one new freshman recruit for the 2009-10 year.
“Monica Chow, our lone freshman, really came through big for us at the Georgia Tech Invitational,” Bradley said.
Chow claimed three of the four singles wins and one of the two doubles wins at that tournament.
Overall, this weekend’s tournament has the potential to determine the direction the Tigers’ season will take. Bradley’s first season here has started strong, and the ITA Regional Championships will be another opportunity to show the team’s potential.
“All in all, I am really pleased with how fall has gone,” Bradley said. “We still have some work to do in order to accomplish our goals this season, but we are definitely on the right track ... As a coaching staff, we try and tell the players that they should gain confidence from their hard work and preparation and not only by wins and losses alone.”
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