Fresh off their opening GLIAC weekend in which they knocked off the Saginaw Valley Cardinals and fell to the Northwood Timberwolves, the women’s tennis Huskies hit the road this weekend to take part in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Midwest Region Tournament in Indianapolis, IN.
Last season, senior Silvia Oliveros made a serious run at the tournament crown only to fall to the eventual winner and top-seeded Darina Berkova, of Northwood, in straight sets in the semi-finals.
The Huskies enter the tournament with only sophomore Victoria Zhilkina finishing in the Top 50 in the country last season at No. 38 in the ITA Rankings. She will likely receive a high seed this season, but perhaps not as high as Oliveros’ seventh seed last season.
The tournament format has four to five singles players from each regional team bracketed a la the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Typically the top one or two players from each squad will be seeded and the rest of the spots are picked at random.
The doubles side of the tournament works in much the same way, with the top duo from each squad being seeded and the rest randomly distributed.
Huskies Earn Split to Open GLIAC Play.
Sophomore transfer Ploy Suthijindawong was the only Huskies’ player to earn wins in both of her singles matches as the Huskies cruised to a 9-0 win over the Cardinals and dropped a 7-2 decision to the Timberwolves.
On Saturday, all three doubles squads earned wins before Zhilkina, Suthijindawong, junior Nathalia Rondelli, junior Asel Otunchieva, senior Danielle Stoll, and sophomore Kira Eck all earned wins in singles.
On Sunday, the doubles pair of Otunchieva and Zhilkina cut the Timberwolves’ lead in half, but only Suthijindawong could earn a win in singles.
For more complete recaps of the individual matches, look for our match recaps on our website, mtulode.com.