Tribe Off to Hot Start at ITA East Regional

W&M will have six singles players and two doubles teams competing on the third day of the ITA East Regional.

10/20/07 11:55PM

Norfolk, Va. - The William and Mary women’s tennis team opened the ITA East Regional at the Folkes-Stevens Indoor Tennis Center in Norfolk, Va. Through the opening two days of the event, the Tribe is a combined 11-1 in singles and doubles. W&M will continue competition in the region championship with six singles players and two doubles teams in competition on Sunday, Oct. 21.

Sophomores Lauren Sabacinski and Magdalena Bresson earned opening round victories in the main singles draw. Bresson improved to 10-1 on the season with a straight-set, 6-2, 6-1, victory over Isabell Raich of Marshall. Bresson avenged her only loss of the season, which came to Raich on Sept. 23 in three sets.

After winning a pair of qualifying matches on Friday, Sabacinski continued her winning ways with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Jana Kubicikova of Old Dominion. The Plantation, Fla., native earned a pair of straight-set victories in the qualifying bracket to earn a spot in the main draw. On Friday, Sabacinski defeated Alison Adamski of St. John’s, 6-2, 6-0, before disposing of Dartmouth’s Jesse Adler, 6-4, 6-1. Sabacinski improved to 9-2 on the year with the victories.

Sabacinski will take on the No. 26 seed in the tournament Charlie Tansill of Penn at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21. Bresson will face No. 31 seed Elizabeth George of Cornell at noon. The winner of the Sabacinski-Tansill second-round match will play in the third round at 3 p.m., while the winner of the Bresson-George contest will play in the third round at 4:30 p.m.

The Tribe advanced to a pair of doubles teams to the round of 16 in the main doubles draw. The No. 1-seeded pair of senior Megan Moulton-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic cruised to a pair of wins on Saturday, improving to 3-0 on the year. Moulton-Levy and Zoricic, who are ranked No. 1 nationally, downed Denise Harijanto and Diana Popescu of Buffalo, 8-0, in the first round, before dispatching of Brown’s Bianca Aboubakare and Marisa Schonfeld, 8-4. The Tribe tandem will battle the No. 14 seeded VCU pair of Laura Burns and Vera Petrashevich in the round of 16 at 8 a.m.

Bresson and fellow classmate Ragini Acharya are the No. 15 seed in the tournament and earned a spot in the round of 16 with a pair of victories. The Tribe duo defeated Alison Adamski and Maria Zivcicova of St. John’s, 8-2, in the opening round and took down James Madison’s Rebecca Erickson and Anna Khoor, 8-2, in the second round. The victories pushed Acharya and Bresson’s season mark to 5-0. The W&M tandem will face the No. 7 seeded Old Dominion team of Barbara Costa and Charleen Haarhoff at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

The only Tribe doubles pair not advance to the round of 16 in the main doubles draw was Sabacinski and junior Klaudyna Kasztelaniec. The W&M duo earned a spot in the main doubles draw with a pair of victories in the qualifying bracket. Sabacinski and Kasztelaniec downed Martina Featherston and Catherine Kellner of Fordham, 8-1, and the Yale duo of Janet Kim and Stevi Petrelli, 9-8 (6), in the qualifying draw to earn a spot in the main doubles bracket. The W&M pair downed Emily and Melissa Lewis of Drexel, 8-1, in the opening round of the main draw. Kasztelaniec and Sabacinski fell to the tournament’s No. 2 seed of Kate Kosminskaya and Julia Koulbitskaya of Penn, 8-3. The Quaker duo is also ranked No. 54 nationally.

In the main singles draw, the Tribe has four seeded players which all earned first-round byes. Moulton-Levy is seeded No. 1 in the tournament and will open play in the second round at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21, against Jordan Jenkins of Liberty. The winner will compete in the third round of the event at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Acharya is seed No. 4 in the tournament followed by Zoricic, who is the No. 5 seed. Zoricic opens play at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday against Penn State’s Jenny Shular, while Acharya it set to compete at 2 p.m. against Dina Senkina of Temple. The winner of the Zoricic-Shular match will compete in the third round at 5 p.m. on Sunday, while the winner of the Acharya-Senkina will battle in the third round at 5:30 p.m.

Kastelaniec rounds out the Tribe seeded players in the singles draw at No. 13 and will play in the second round at 11 a.m. on Sunday. She will battle Meg Zebroski of Dartmouth with the winner slated for a 4 p.m. third-round match.

The ITA East Regional continues on Sunday, Oct. 21, in Norfolk. The event will continue through Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center. The regional winners will earn spots in the 2007 ITA National Indoor Championships, Nov. 1-4, hosted by The Ohio State University at the Racquet Club of Columbus. The ITA National Indoor Championships features a 32-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles field.

W&M Results from the ITA East Regional
Friday, Oct. 19
Qualifying Singles Draw First Round
Lauren Sabacinski (W&M) def. Alison Adamski (St. John’s) – 6-2, 6-0

Qualifying Singles Draw Second Round
Lauren Sabacinski (W&M) def. Jesse Adler (Dartmouth) – 6-4, 6-1

Qualifying Doubles Draw First Round
Kasztelaniec/Sabacinski (W&M) def. Featherston/Kellner (Fordham) – 8-1

Qualifying Doubled Draw Second Round
Kasztelaniec/Sabacinski (W&M) def. Kim/Petrelli (Yale) – 9-8 (6)

Saturday, Oct. 20
Main Singles Draw First Round
Magdalena Bresson (W&M) def. Isabell Raich (Marshall) – 6-2, 6-1
Lauren Sabacinski (W&M) def. Jana Kubicikova (ODU) – 6-0, 6-3

Main Doubles Draw First Round
#1 Moulton-Levy/Zoricic (W&M) [1] def. Harijanto/Popescu (Buffalo) – 8-0
#15 Acharya/Bresson (W&M) def. Adamski/Zivciovca (St. John’s) – 8-2
Kasztelaniec/Sabacinski (W&M) def. E. Lewis/M. Lewis (Drexel) – 8-1

Main Doubles Draw Second Round
#1 Moulton-Levy/Zoricic (W&M) [1] def. Aboubakare/Schnofeld (Brown) – 8-4
#15 Acharya/Bresson (W&M) def. Erickson/Khoor (James Madison) – 8-2
#2 Kosminskaya/Koulbitskaya (Penn) [54] def. Kasztelaniec/Sabacinski (W&M) – 8-3