Willamette Competes in First Two Days of ITA Northwest Regional

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

NEWBERG, Ore. -- The Willamette University women's tennis team competed in singles and doubles during the first two days of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northwest Regional on Friday, Sept. 29 and Saturday, Sept. 30 at George Fox University. The ITA Northwest Regional will continue through Sunday, Oct. 1, when the championship matches will be played in the "A" singles bracket, "B" singles bracket, and doubles.

Anika Groener (Jr., Bend, OR/Summit HS) and Alexa de Crinis (So., Makawao, HI/Seabury Hall School) represented Willamette in the "A" singles bracket. In the first round on Friday, Groener fell to Sofia Mazzola of Pacific University, 6-3, 6-0, while de Crinis lost in a super tie-breaker to Sascha Wells of Whitman. Wells won the match, 6-1, 3-6, 10-6.

Groener and de Crinis both moved to the "A" singles consolation bracket on Saturday, where they each received a bye before de Crinis edged past Paige Oliver of Whitworth. During the match, de Crinis was victorious in a regular tie-breaker in the second set, and then won a super tie-breaker to prevail, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 10-6. Groener lost in the second round of the bracket as Susanna Arnand of Lewis & Clark College claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win. On Sunday, de Crinis will take on Kaitlyn Canubida of Linfield in the "A" singles consolation semifinals.

The pairing of Groener and de Crinis in the doubles bracket led to an 8-1 victory over Sarah Kaczmarek and Sydney Swartz from the University of Puget Sound, 8-1 on Friday. In the second round, also on Friday, Ilina Jha and Sascha Wells of Whitman downed Groener and deCrinis, 8-3. Also in doubles for the Bearcats, Marie Tarrab (So., Turner, OR/Cascade HS) and Alicia Sola (Fy., Aumsville, OR/Cascade HS) fell to Cassidy Binder and Sydnie Binder of Pacific, 8-0 in the first round, and Grace O'Steen (So., Phoenix, AZ/Shadow Mountain HS) and Ruby Thompson (Grad., Bay City, OR/Tillamook HS) lost to Morgan McArthur and Libertad Sarmiento of Whitworth, 8-0 in the first round.

In the first round of the doubles consolation bracket, O'Steen and Thompson of Willamette outscored Keilyn Futter and Angela Nguyen from Pacific, 8-6. Also in the first round, Tarrab and Sola were defeated by Piper Rylander and Julia Longpre of Whitman, 8-1. During second-round action on Saturday, O'Steen and Thompson fell to Paige Shinall and Marissa Perez of Puget Sound, 8-4.

Tarrab, Thompson, Sola, O'Steen, and Eva Lief (Fy., Anchorage, AK/West Anchorage HS) were all in the "B" singles bracket. Lief received a bye in the first round, but had to default due to injury in the second round. Tarrab lost to Anna Emerson from Pacific in the opening round, 6-1, 6-1. Sola was defeated by Audrey Judson of Whitworth in the first round, 6-1, 6-0. Thompson won in the first round over Swartz of Puget Sound, 6-2, 6-2, before falling to Haley Kreps from Lewis & Clark, 6-0, 6-1. O'Steen received a first round bye and lost to Shanah Denham of George Fox in the second round, 6-0, 6-0.

Results for Sola of Willamette in the "B" singles consolation bracket include an 8-5 triumph over Swartz of Puget Sound, 8-5, and a loss to Soraya Young-Pen of Lewis & Clark, 8-1, in the second round. During the first round Young-Pen defeated Tarrab of the Bearcats, 8-2. In the "B" singles second round consolation bracket, Thompson defeated Nguyen from Pacific, 6-2, 6-2, before falling to Laura Schneidman from Puget Sound, 6-4, 6-1. Also, O'Steen was downed by Natalie Budge in the first round of the bracket, 6-0, 6-0.