ST. PETER, Minn. – Senior
Allie Prokosch and sophomore
Olha Zubarieva of the St. Olaf College women's tennis team competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Midwest Regional, while several Oles took part in the Gustie Invite this past weekend.
Zubarieva won a pair of matches in the main draw to advance to the round of 16, while Prokosch won her first-round match before falling in a tight three-setter to the No. 15 seed. The duo also won their opening-round doubles match before falling in the second round.
As the No. 13 seed, Zubarieva picked up straight-set wins over Julia Moreno of Luther and Raquel Egge of Concordia-Moorhead before dropping a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 match to No. 5 seed Gianna Nikoleit of UW-Whitewater in the round of 16. Prokosch recorded a 6-1, 6-1 win over Natalie Peterson of Saint Mary's before going down 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (10-8) to No. 15 seed Sam Fuchs of UW-Eau Claire.
In the doubles draw, Prokosch and Zubarieva were the No. 14-seeded tandem and opened the tournament with an 8-3 victory over Greta Nesbit and Maria Bedford of Saint Ben's. The Ole duo dropped their next match by an 8-6 margin to Meadow LaDuke and Natalie Kaiser of Wartburg.
Seven Oles took part in the Gustie Invitational, which was made up of seven 16-player brackets in singles and three 16-duo brackets in doubles. In singles, first year
Alexandra Berns won her bracket with a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 1-0 (10-6) victory over Faith Leithold of UW-Stevens Point to finish off a 4-0 weekend, while sophomore
Jane Spading also went 4-0 and won her bracket with a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-8) victory over Luther's Lexi Hastings in the championship match.
Sophomores
Fiona O'Flaherty and
Sarah Clark also advanced to the championship matches of their brackets as part of 3-1 showings. After winning their first three matches, O'Flaherty was edged 7-6 (6), 6-3 by Luther's Abby Struble and Clark went down 6-4, 6-3 to Grinnell's Kalea Martin.
In doubles, the tandems of Berns and junior
Anna Secor and Clark and Spading both advanced to the semifinals of their 16-team brackets as part of 2-1 weekends.
St. Olaf hosts Cardinal Stritch University in its first of two fall dual matches on Sunday, Oct. 2. The match begins at 10:30 a.m. at Carlson Courts.
