[Tennis] Tennis Competes at ITA Regional
Doane Tennis competed in the ITA Regional Championships on September 24-26 in Winfield, Kansas. The Tigers brought home several victories in the tournament, especially on the women's side. Players were guaranteed two matches in the tournament.
In the women's bracket, the Tigers had six players compete. Collecting first round wins were Mariane Lima (JR/Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais) and Liz van der Torre (JR/Greeley, Colo.). Lima defeated Kendra Maples of McPherson, 6-0, 6-4, while van der Torre won 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9) over Fatima Nemi of Bethel. Both players dropped their next match to seeded players in the Round of 32.
After dropping their opening matches, four Tigers fell into the consolation bracket where three qualified for the semifinals. Ashlyn Kucera (FR/Grand Island, Neb.), after taking on the No. 1 overall seed in the opening match, won by walkover in her first match of the consolation bracket. She then defeated Kinzie Comley of Sterling, 8-3, and Nicole Marin of Sterling, 8-6. Awaiting her in the semifinals was teammate Amber Weston (SO/Mead, Colo.). Weston advanced to the semifinals as she rebounded from a super tie-break loss in the opening match. She defeated Patricia Moore of Baker, 9-7, and then defeated Caitlin Souvannavong of Texas Wesleyan, 3-2 (ret.). Halle Krehbiel of Bethel stood in Weston's way for advancing to the semifinals but the Tiger sophomore was up to the task as she posted an 8-6 win. The semifinal between Weston and Kucera would not be contested as Kucera was still alive in the doubles consolation bracket as well so Weston took the walkover win to advance to the finals.
On the other side of the consolation bracket stood another familiar face for Weston in teammate Ava Macke (SR/Omaha, Neb.). In the opening round, Macke was edged in a tough battle as dropped her match 6-4, 4-6, 0-1 (9-11). She bounced back with a pair of wins over opponents from Friends University, 8-1 and 8-2. Macke advanced to the semifinals with an 8-4 win over Nalea Payton of Bethel. Tabor's Tiana Shelton was next in line for Macke and the Tiger senior topped Shelton, 8-2. The championship match went unplayed between Weston and Macke. Brylee Lauby (SR/Lexington, Neb.) advanced to the consolation Round of 16 before she was defeated 8-3.
In doubles play, Lima and Weston teamed up for an 8-0 win in their opening match before being knocked out in the Round of 16, 8-4. Macke and van der Torre won 8-6 in their opening match but was knocked out in the next round, 8-0, by the eventual champions. Lauby and Kucera dropped their opening match and then made a run to the finals of the consolation bracket. In the consolations, they posted wins of 6-1, 6-4, and 4-1 (ret.) in three matches to qualify for the finals where they were defeated.
The men had four players in the tournament. Jorge Chevez (SR/Panama City, Panama) entered as the 4-seed and advanced to the quarterfinals before falling in a third-set super tie-break. He opened with a 6-2, 6-2, win over David Steadman of Baker. Chevez then defeated Jhoel Quinonez of Ottawa, 6-1, 7-5. In the Round of 16, he defeated Daniel Marcano of McPherson, 6-2, 6-3. Daniel Harkin of Kansas Wesleyan, the 5-seed, topped Chevez in the quarters, 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 1-0 (10-8). Esteban Gutierrez (SO/Panama City, Panama) was also a first round winner, defeating Jeremiah Berryman of Concordia, 6-1, 6-1. He was defeated in the Round of 32 by 7-seed, David Moral Tebar of Southwestern, 6-3, 6-3.
Sam Coy (SR/Lincoln, Neb.) and Donat Beke (SO/Algyo, Hungary) each drew seeded players in the opening round and dropped those matches. Coy dropped his consolation bracket match to the eventual bracket champion Jonathan De La O of Southwestern. Beke was forced to retire due to injury in his consolation match. The duo would withdraw from the doubles tournament consolation bracket after an opening round loss.
Chevez and Gutierrez teamed up in doubles and were seeded third. They opened with an 8-3 win over a team from Bethel and then defeated a team from Ottawa, 8-5. They were defeated in the quarterfinals by a team from McPherson that would go on to win the doubles championship.