CAMBRIDGE, MA – The USTA/ITA Regional Championships opened today at MIT with a draw of 64 singles and draw of 32 doubles players. Seven singles Williams players are entered: Kara Shoemaker, Nancy Worley, Rebecca Curran, Maria Pylypiv, Monica Pastor, Riqui McCoy and Kate Pollan. The Ephs also have three doubles pairs competing: Shoemaker/Curran, Pylypiv/McCoy and Hart/Worley.
This tournament is considered the most important individual event of the year, with the winner of the singles and doubles getting automatic bids to the ITA National Small College Tournament in Mobile, AL and automatic All-American status. This year, both Shoemaker and Worley are in the top 8 seeds, 2nd and 3rd respectively. The top seed goes to Middlebury’s LokSze Leung who defeated Worley last year to claim first place in this very same tournament. In doubles play, Williams pair of Curran/Shoemaker are the top seed.
After the first round of singles matches, six Ephs advanced. Maria Pylypiv defeated Faith Broderick of Brandeis 6-0, 6-4. She moved on to face top-ranked Leung of Midd. in the second round. Three Ephs swept their opponents, going 6-0, 6-0. Nancy Worley defeated Bayla Weick (Smith), Rebecca Curran beat Sarah Wiener (Colby) and Kate Pollan won against Lindsay Benoit (Nichols). Riqui McCoy and Kara Shoemaker also advanced, winning 6-0, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-4 respectively.
The second round saw the elimination of two Willams players, Pylypiv and McCoy, but Curran, Shoemaker, Worley and Pollan all made it through to the round of 16.
In doubles, top-seeded pair of Curran/Shoemaker advanced swiftly into the 3rd round defeating teams from Bowdoin and Wellesley 8-5, 8-3 respectively. McCoy/Pylypiv were eliminated in the second round by the 5th seeded team of Gerger/Kepping from Middlebury after winning their first round matchup against Brunk/Madzhukova (Bates). The final Williams pair of Hart/Worley were also defeated in the second round. After a long-fought 9-8 (6) match, Gann/Schonfeld (Tufts) ultimately came out on top. This Tufts pair is surely one to keep an eye on, as they defeated the number 2 pairing of Alberstone/Cheng (Bowdoin) in the first round.
The second day of competition continues today. Complete results for both singles and doubles can be found here.
