The Weber State University women’s tennis team struggled last week in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Championship; only one Wildcat qualified for the second round of the main draw.
More than 120 women’s collegiate tennis players competed at the 2011 United States Tennis Association Mountain Region Championships held at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. The competition began on Oct. 12 and continued through Oct. 15.
After the first day of the tournament, senior Brittiny Moore was the only Wildcat to qualify for the second round of main draw singles, winning her first match against Malia Wahinepio of Northern Arizona University.
Moore said the team has been playing well in the fall. She also said there are some things they need to improve upon before the start of the spring season.
“Today we played well; we just have to find the confidence to play and win,” Moore said. “Fall tournaments are normally a chance to develop our individual skills. The spring season is when we execute everything.”
Moore would go on to lose to Precious Gbadamosi of the University of New Mexico in the second round of singles later that day.
Moore, a native of Meridian, Idaho, earned All-Big Sky Conference Second Team honors at the end of the last spring season. During Big Sky play, Moore posted an impressive 6-2 record in singles, while going 3-5 in conference doubles matches.
She said she is looking forward to having another strong spring season and hopes to help her team compete.
“I am very excited about the competitive edge our team has this year,” Moore said. “We have a lot of talent, and I believe that it will be showcased at the right time. Hopefully, that time is conference in the spring.”
Sophomore Ashley Tanner defeated UNM’s Nikolina Grbac to advance to the quarterfinals of the consolation singles matches on the second day of the competition. Tanner would later lose to Ellie Crum of Montana State University in the quarterfinals. Tanner was the only Wildcat to advance to the quarterfinals in this competition.
Tanner said that, despite the rough time the team had at the tournament, they still took a lot away from it.
“We learned a lot from this last week,” Tanner said. “We were able to play a lot of great matches and got to see where we have improved and what we still need to improve on.”
The Wildcats will now prepare for the spring season. Tanner said she thinks WSU will have a very strong team in the spring.
“We have an amazing team this year, and I am looking forward to our conference matches this upcoming spring season,” Tanner said.
The doubles team of Moore and Michelle Warwick had a promising start in the tournament, but it was not enough to beat the Utah State University double of Romina Nedakovic and Brianna Rowland Harris.
“It was a really tough tournament with a lot of good teams, but we all put tremendous effort into our matches despite the outcome,” Warwick said. “Our team is really on fire and extremely excited to keep improving and working hard to do well in conference this coming spring season.”