Murray State University Athletics
Racers go 24-9 at UTC tournament
9/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Murray State women's tennis team traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., for the weekend of Sept. 24-26 to participate in singles and doubles competition in the 10-team University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Baras Fall Classic.
The Racers were 24-9 overall, winning 72.7 percent of their matches. MSU went 17-6 (.739) in singles play and 7-3 (.700) in doubles play.
Participating in the Flight A singles action from Murray State were sophomore Anna Lask and seniors Jaclyn Leeper and Jennifer Ward. In the Flight B singles were sophomores Rachael Lask and Casady Pruitt, and in the Flight C singles were sophomore Christina Hall, junior Tami McQueen and freshman Whitney Robards.
In Flight A, Anna Lask, from Louisville, Ky., went 3-0, defeating Gayatri Ramesh of Tennessee-Martin 6-3, 7-5, then defeating the tournament's top seed, Carolina de Altube from Shorter, 7-5, 6-1. Lask completed the flight sweep by defeating Julia von Samson from Alabama-Birmingham 6-2, 6-1.
Leeper, from West Paducah, Ky., went 2-0 in the Flight A singles action, defeating No. 2 seed Marlene Dirnstorfer of Memphis 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Tennessee-Martin's Sari Nortje 6-3, 7-6.
Ward, from Marietta, Ga., went 3-0 in the Flight A singles action, defeating Zeynep Gurkaynak of Jacksonville State 6-1, 6-3, Antonia Nugent of UAB, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 and Shorter's Glenny Cepeda 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
Due to a tournament rule, players from the same team could not play each other, and with the success of the Murray State team, this caused a dilemma in the final bracket. Both Ward and Leeper made it to the semifinal round to play each other, and Anna Lask advanced all the way to the final round, scheduled to play the winner of Ward/Leeper. An all-Murray State final was set, but was not played because of the tournament rule.
In Flight B, Rachael Lask, from Louisville, Ky., went 2-1, defeating Mary Beth Muncher from Lipscomb 6-0, 6-1, Shorter's Caroline Doury 6-0, 6-2, and falling in the quarterfinals to Tennessee-Martin's Katrina Domela 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Pruitt, from Merrillville, Ind., went 2-1, defeating Layla Abby from Jacksonville State 6-2, 6-3 and losing to Wofford's Tara Hartness 6-4, 6-2, before defeating UAB's Annemieke Elsholz 8-3 in the consolation bracket.
In Flight C, Hall, from Bowling Green, Ky., went 2-1, defeating UTC's Christy Fazio 6-3, 6-3 and Alex Tijoe of Memphis 7-6, 6-0 before falling to UAB's Seden Soyalp 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
McQueen, from Menlo Park, South Africa, went 2-1, defeating Jacksonville State's Whitney Collins 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 and UAB's Jana Wilde 6-2, 6-2 before losing to Elly Shearman of Tennessee-Martin in the semifinals, 6-2, 6-2.
Robards, from Henderson, Ky., went 1-2, losing to Lauren Pickett of Wofford 6-3, 6-2, then beating Casey Hall of Lipscomb 6-3, 7-6, and falling to UTC's Kristie Wilson 7-5, 6-2.
Participating in Flight A doubles were the teams of Lask/Lask and Ward/Pruitt, with the teams of Leeper/Hall and McQueen/Robards playing in Flight B.
In Flight A, Lask/Lask went 3-1, defeating Jacksonville State's team of Layla Abby/Robin Gorman 8-0 in the eight-game pro set; UTC's Bonnie Adams/Lindsey Ballard 8-1 and Tennessee-Martin's Gavatri Ramesh/Elly Shearman 8-1 before falling to Tennessee-Martin's Katrina Domela/Sari Nortje in the finals, 8-3.
The team of Ward/Pruitt went 0-1, falling to eventual champion Domela/Nortje of Tennessee-Martin, 8-3.
In Flight B, the team of Leeper/Hall went undefeated, 4-0, winning the championship for this bracket. They defeated UAB's Samrin Tanzeem/Jana Wilde 9-8, Shorter's Caroline Doury/Michelle Lord 8-5, Wofford's Tara Hartness/Lauren Pickett 8-4 and UAB's Seden Soyalp/Julia von Samson in the championship,8-4.
The team of McQueen/Robards went 0-1, losing to Alex Tijoe/Christina Wieser of Memphis 9-8.
The Murray State women's tennis team's next competition will be on Oct. 8-10, at the Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Ind.
