After half of the six-day ITA Midwest Regional Championships, all of Minnesota’s men’s and women’s tennis players have been eliminated.
The women are playing host to the tournament at Baseline Tennis Center.
After qualifying Thursday and Friday for Saturday’s main draw, Minnesota women’s singles players Ida Malmberg and Jane Anderson fell at the hands of Michigan’s Elizabeth Exon and Purdue’s Hala Sufi, respectively.
The only women’s doubles pair to win a match was the team of Malmberg and Danielle Mousseau. But they were eliminated in the round of 32 by a pair from DePaul.
Minnesota’s only automatic qualifier to the main draw, Nischela Reddy, lost to top-seeded
Audra Cohen of Northwestern 6-1, 6-1.
“She doesn’t give you any loose balls,” Reddy said. “Constant pressure all the time.”
Coach Tyler Thomson said he thought Reddy played as well as she could, considering her opponent.
“There are two ways of looking at it,” Thomson said. “It kind of sucks that you have to play somebody that good, that early. But, on the other hand, you don’t get very many opportunities to play the No. 1 player in the nation.”
Playing in Ann Arbor, Mich., the men’s doubles pairs of
D.J. Geatz and Brian Lipinski, and Adrien Debreyne and Avery Ticer were the longest to last.
While Geatz and Lipinski lost their first match Sunday, Ticer and Debreyne won theirs 8-3 before losing their next match 8-5.
In singles competition, Ticer and Geatz both lost in the round of 64 Saturday.
Although Debreyne won his first match against Monte Tucker of Illinois in the round of 64, he then fell in the round of 32.
Coach David Geatz had mixed emotions about the tournament.
“We competed hard, so I’m happy about the effort,” Geatz said. “But it was disappointing that no one qualified for the
national indoor tournament, which is what we came here to do.”