The Swarthmore College women’s tennis team was well-represented at ITA Regionals last weekend, as the Garnet saw several players perform well in singles matches. Lia Carlson ’14, Second Team All-Centennial last year, made it to the Round of 16 in the championship singles bracket.
“The experience was very valuable for the team and gave us good momentum going into the offseason,” head coach Jeremy Loomis said. “The team pretty much met expectations and sometimes exceeded them. Most of the things that I’ve focused on in practice were evident during their competitions.”
Carlson was the Garnet’s top performer, blasting her way through two preliminary championship bracket rounds to reach the Round of 16. In her first match, she annihilated Bridgewater College’s Marla O’Bryan, 6-1, 6-0, and in the second round she staged a comeback to beat Johns Hopkins’ Abby Clark, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Despite her success, Carlson felt as though her weekend was not representative of her best efforts. “I didn’t feel as though Regionals went as well as I could have expected,” she said. “I feel as though I lost [in the Round of 16] because of fitness rather than that the girl I played was better than me.”
There were more bright spots for the Garnet, as Stephanie Chia ’13, Epiphany English ’14, Brooke Wilkins ’14 and Gayatri Iyengar ’15 all won singles matches.
Iyengar and Wilkins also teamed up in doubles, hanging tough against a pair from Carnegie Mellon before falling 8-5.
“I feel the weekend went great. Everyone played really well and was there to support one another,” Iyengar said. “I was hoping to do a little better in doubles, but my partner and I played two really great matches that we’re really proud of.”
“All of the players had their moments,” said Loomis. “I thought [that] doubles was misleading because, on the scoreboard, we didn’t win a match, but all of the matches were close and I definitely saw improvement from a couple of weeks ago. I think that the team was also happy with the results, they were impressed with the level of competition and can see that with continued work, they’ll be ready for a solid start to the spring.”
The tennis team will go on a winter hiatus until February 26, when the spring season kicks off at home against Carnegie Mellon.
