W&M Women’s Tennis Has Another Outstanding Day at ITA Regionals

Three Singles Players and One Doubles Team Reach Final Four

10/24/05 7:31PM

WEST POINT, NY - William and Mary’s women’s tennis team continued to dominate at the ITA East Region Championships today, posting a 9-2 record overall, including one loss when two Tribe teammates were forced to play each other in the singles quarterfinal. W&M has three of the final four singles players in the event and also has one doubles team in the semifinals. The tournament is hosted this year by the U.S. Military Academy at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center.

The day began with doubles, where junior Megan Moulton-Levy (Monroe, MI) and rookie Katarina Zoricic (Etobicoke, Ontario), the tournament’s No. 14 seed, won both their matches. The Tribe duo battled out a close, 9-8 (3) win over Harvard’s Stephanie Schnitter and Eva Wang in the fourth round, before breezing past 10th-seeded Dasha Cherkasov/Lauren Krasnopolsky (Boston College), 8-1, in the quarterfinals.

W&M went 7-1 overall in two rounds of singles, the best record possible given that two Tribe players met in the quarterfinals. Zoricic posted two of the biggest upsets of the tournament, knocking off two of the top five seeds in consecutive matches. In the round of 16, she beat Melissa Anderson (Harvard), seeded fifth in the tournament and ranked 78th in the nation, 6-0, 6-3. Zoricic followed that up with a win over the tournament’s No. 2 seed, 31st-ranked Ramona But (Maryland), 5-7, 6-3, ret. The matches were the first of her college career against nationally ranked opponents, and she is now the only un-seeded participant remaining in the tournament. Her semifinal opponent tomorrow will be senior teammate Megan Muth (Covington, LA), who had to defeat another Tribe player in the quarterfinals. Ranked 46th in the nation and seeded sixth, Muth beat Laura Peterzan (Harvard), 6-4, 6-1, in the round of 16, before coming back to defeat Tribe rookie Lauren Cash (Allendale, NJ), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Earlier in the day, Cash extended her singles winning streak to nine straight matches with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, win over the tournament’s No. 3 seed Milena Kachar (Columbia). Rounding out singles play for the College was Moulton-Levy, the tournament’s No. 1 seed and the nation’s 23rd-ranked singles player. Moulton-Levy extended her singles winning streak to eight matches, defeating Lana Krasnopolsky (Boston College), 6-0, 6-0 and Dominique Liguori (Fordham), 6-2, 6-2.

With three players in the semifinals of the singles draw, the Tribe is assured of sending at least one to the finals and earning an automatic berth into the ITA National Indoor Championships, which will be hosted by Ohio State University November 3-6. The region’s doubles champion and two singles finalists are automatically placed in the event, which is the most exclusive individual national championship of the college season. The Tribe has had a regional singles or doubles champion in each of the last three seasons. Muth won the singles title as a freshman in 2003 and teamed up with 2005 graduate Amy Wei (Marietta, GA) to take the doubles title in 2004. Last season, Moulton-Levy and then-senior Candice Fuchs (Sarasota, FL) also won the regional doubles title.

William and Mary Women’s Tennis at ITA East Regionals

Singles
Fourth Round (16)
#23 Megan Moulton-Levy (W&M) d. Lana Krasnopolsky (Boston College); 6-0, 6-0
#46 Megan Muth (W&M) d. Laura Peterzan (Harvard); 6-4, 6-1
Lauren Cash (W&M) d. Milena Kachar (Columbia); 6-0, 3-6, 6-3
Katarina Zoricic (W&M) d. #78 Melissa Anderson (Harvard); 6-0, 6-3

Quarterfinal
#23 Moulton-Levy (W&M) d. Dominique Liguori (Fordham); 6-2, 6-2
#46 Muth (W&M) d. Cash (W&M); 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Zoricic (W&M) d. #31 Ramona But (Maryland); 5-7, 6-3, ret.


Doubles
Third Round (16)
Megan Moulton-Levy/Katarina Zoricic (W&M) d. Stephanie Schnitter/Eva Wang (Harvard); 9-8 (3)
Preethi Mukurdan/Laura Peterzan (Harvard) d. Megan Muth/Barbara Zidek (W&M); 8-4

Quarterfinal
Moulton-Levy/Zoricic (W&M) d. Dasha Cherkasov/Lauren Krasnopolsky (Boston College); 8-1