Boston College
USTA Invitational
Women's Tennis Takes Three Titles at USTA Individual Tournament
October 12, 2010 | Women's Tennis
Oct. 12, 2010
Chestnut Hill, Mass. - The Boston College women's tennis team competed at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows New York over Columbus Day weekend. The Eagles collected four individual titles and one doubles flight in a field of 128 players made up from 17 teams.
The eight players representing BC tallied an impressive overall combined record of 28-7 in singles and doubles play.
One of BC strengths this season promises to be its team depth.
"In order to be successful in the ACC and be a national contending team, we must be strong throughout the lineup," head coach Nigel Bentley commented. "In this tournament, I think we demonstrated that we made some important progress in this regard. The players really stepped up and it was exciting to see so many BC players in the finals on Monday. We have lots of hard work ahead, but this was a good tournament for us."
All BC players finished with winning singles records.
Senior Katharine Attwell, sophomore Olga Khmylev and sophomore Ina Kauppila all won their respective flights in singles play. In addition to the three titles, Erina Kikuchi, Kataina Gajic and Haley Dixon all ended with very positive results.
Sophomore Alex Kelleher and junior transfer Erina Kikuchi won their doubles draw.
Freshman Veronica Corning injured a knee in her opening doubles match and was forced to withdraw.
One of the weekend's highlights was a match featuring Kelleher and the No. 1 ranked player in the northeast region, Bianca Aboubakare of Brown University. Competing in the Single Flight A semifinal, the two players plastered ground-strokes for nearly three hours in an effort to reaches the championship match. Kelleher had earned a match point earlier, but fell in a super tie-breaker, 11-9.
"Alex has matured into one of the regions elite players," Bentley stated after the match. "Losing such a heart breaker is never easy, but I'm happy she demonstrated how talented she really is. I'm confident Alex is going to get some big wins for us this season."
Announcements regarding which players will qualify for the Regional Championships held at Dartmouth University from October 22-26, will be made Friday, October 15.
