GENEVA, N.Y. – The Vassar College women's tennis team began play at the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Championships on Saturday. Two Brewers advanced to the round of 16 in singles, while the doubles tandem of
Frances Cornwall (Poway, CA) and
Tara Edwards (Littleton, CO) won a pair of matches to move into the quarterfinals.
Seeded fourth, Cornwall and Edwards earned a tight 8-6 victory over Rochester's Abbey Reinhart and Camila Garcia in the first round. They then topped William Smith's Allie Perron and Dina Regas by an 8-2 count to secure their spot in the quarterfinals, where they'll meet NYU's Judy Kam and Kate Shaffer.
Cornwall also won both of her singles matches on Saturday. The No. 4 seed in the tournament, she knocked off Hamilton's Ajla Karabegovic 6-1, 6-0, then defeated RIT's Shayna Ginster by a score of 6-1, 6-1. She'll be joined in the round of 16 by
Sarra Yekta (Las Vegas, NV). Yekta, the 16
th-seed, earned a pair of 7-5, 6-1 triumphs over Rochester's Wang Yuhan and Anne Taylor of RIT.
Edwards was the No. 11 seed in the singles draw, and she won her first match before falling in the second round. She topped RIT's Amelia Ying 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 in the first round, then suffered a tight 0-6, 7-6, 12-10 loss to Caroline Reilly of St. Lawrence.
Melina Stavropoulos (Atherton, CA) and
Ashley Fair (Laguna Beach, CA) each went 1-1 in singles, as well. Stavropoulos won her first-round match 6-2, 6-2 over St. Lawrence's Grace Van Tartwijk before falling, 6-4, 6-2, to the No. 5 seed, NYU's Flyora Shiyanova. Fair, meanwhile, beat William Smith's Alex Greenberg 6-4, 6-2 and fell, 6-1, 6-0, to Skidmore's Lily Feldman.
In doubles, Stavropoulos and Fair were drawn against the top-seeded pair, Risa Fukushige and Dea Koiava of Skidmore, and suffered an 8-1 loss.
Morgane Flournoy (Grosse Pointe, MI) and Yekta, meanwhile, dropped an 8-6 decision to St. Lawrence's Caroline Reilly and Christina Ryan in their opening match. Flournoy also fell, 6-3, 7-5, to Skidmore's Jackie Ahn in singles play.
On Sunday, the singles round of 16 and quarterfinals will be held, along with the doubles quarterfinals and semifinals. Action begins at 8:30 a.m. with the singles matches.
