After a brutal four-day stretch, the semifinal round was where the show stopped for the members of the women’s tennis team on Tuesday morning. The Tigers traveled to New Haven, Conn., to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional and, despite not returning with a first-place finish, had incredibly strong showings on the weekend.
Two singles players, senior Melissa Saiontz and sophomore Hilary Bartlett, and one doubles tandem, composed of Bartlett and junior Taylor Marable, reached the semifinals of their respective draws, only to lose their matches.
On the singles side, Saiontz and Bartlett each defeated three opponents on the way to the semifinals. Saiontz, seeded 17th in the tournament, upset No. 4 Bianca Aboubakare of Brown, 6-4, 6-4, and No. 13 Kristin Norton of Harvard, 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals, despite suffering an initial hiccup in confidence in the first round.
“I was extremely nervous for my first match of the tournament and did not play my best tennis, but in the matches that followed, I was able to relax and gained confidence in my game,” Saiontz said in an e-mail. “I played my best in the quarterfinal round.”
In the semifinals, Saiontz fell, 6-1, 6-2, to Harvard’s Holly Cao, who was the No. 2 seed overall.
“While I am pleased with the way I competed this weekend, I am definitely disappointed to have not made it to the finals,” Saiontz said. “I think only one person can leave a tournament completely satisfied with their result. Hopefully the next time around I will be in that position.”
On the other side of the bracket, Bartlett had an eventful route to the final four that required three sets to get past Jillian Santos of Binghamton, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, in the round of 16 and Magdalena Ploch of UMass ,3-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the No. 5 seed fell to No. 9 Casey Herzberg of Brown in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5.
In the doubles competition, Bartlett and Marable, who reached the semifinals of the consolation draw in the ITA All-America doubles tournament in California three weeks ago, had a similarly successful run at Regionals. The top-seeded duo easily defeated Julie Flanzer and Misia Krasowski of Brown, 8-2, in the opening round, and snuck by Samantha Rosekrans and Sarah Viebrock of Quinnipiac, 8-6. The Bartlett-Marable tandem edged past the Boston College pair of Alex Kelleher and Olga Khmylev, 9-7, in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Bartlett and Marable, who had been so apt at upsetting opponents in California, fell to Vicky Brook and Stephanie Kent of Yale, 8-3.
The team also advanced three other singles players to the third round, and one more doubles team to the quarterfinals.
In the singles draw, junior Blakely Ashley, freshman Monica Chow and sophomore Rachel Saiontz, the younger sister of Melissa Saiontz, all won their second-round matches in straight sets before bowing out. Ashley fell, 6-2, 6-7 (7-2), 6-3, to Herzberg, while Saiontz fell, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), to CC Sardinha of Syracuse and Chow lost, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, to Denise Harijanto of Buffalo.
In doubles, Chow and Rachel Saiontz breezed by Boston College’s Katarina Gajic and Jackie Mabatah, 8-1, before falling to Kristin Beehler and Annie Houghton of Brown, 8-5, in the quarterfinals.
The regional tournament is always particularly difficult for the team because it usually falls on or near midterm week.
“Last week was a stressful time for my teammates and myself trying to balance midterm and tournament preparation,” Saiontz said. “We all went into the weekend just hoping to play good tennis and compete to the best of our abilities.”
Yet Saiontz praised the team for its dedication and performance in the tournament.
“I was very proud of how the girls managed the stress of midterms and were able to focus on their tennis,” she said.
“The results spoke for themselves as we were the only team with two doubles teams in the quarterfinals and two singles players in the semifinals,” Saiontz added.
In its final tournament of the fall season, the team will travel to North Carolina to participate in the Kitty Harrison Invitational, which begins on Nov. 6.
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