Three Bobcats win multiple matches at ITA Championships
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Cecilia Grissa ’08 |
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Caryn Benisch ’09 |
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Laura Harris ’07 |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Three members of the Bates College women’s tennis team won multiple matches at the Division III ITA Women’s New England Region Tennis Championships, hosted this weekend at MIT and administered by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Junior Cecilia Grissa (Doylestown, Pa.) and sophomore Caryn Benisch (Huntington, N.Y.) both won twice in the consolation bracket after dropping their initial singles matches, and Grissa teamed up with senior Laura Harris (Mercer Island, Wash.) to win twice in the consolation bracket of the doubles championships.
Grissa lost to Tufts’ Silvia Schmid in the opening round of the singles championship, 2-6, 6-2, 10-3. But Bates’ No. 1 singles player went on to defeat Wheaton’s Briana Jackson 6-4, 6-4 and Colby’s Tracy Nale 6-0, 6-0 before bowing out in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket to Wellesley’s Jen Schwarzkopf, 6-3, 6-1.
Benisch lost to Middlebury’s Amy Roche, who went on to win the overall singles championship, in the opening round, 6-0, 6-4. But in the consolation bracket she defeated Smith College’s Miyu Kikuchil, 6-3, 6-3, and advanced to the quarterfinal round with a default win over Brandeis’ Gabrielle Helfgot before losing to Bowdoin’s Brett Davis, 6-0, 6-2.
Bates first-year player Alexandra Piacquad (Yardley, Pa.) was defeated in the opening round of singles play by Amherst’s Jen Murphy, 7-6, 6-1, then fell in the consolation bracket to Middlebury’s Emily Holick, 7-6 (8), 6-2.
Grissa and Harris, an All-NESCAC doubles pair in 2006, lost 8-3 in the opening round of the doubles championship to Bowdoin’s Sarah D’Elia and Kristen Raymond. But the duo rebounded in the consolation bracket with a 9-8 (5) win over Babson’s Laura Becerra and Courtney Farrell. They went on to defeat Williams’ Annie Hancock and Ashley Parsons by an 8-4 score, before losing in the semifinals to Tufts’ Kylyn Deary and Jennifer Luten, 8-3. Deary and Luten wound up winning the consolation bracket.
The Bates women’s tennis team next competes Oct. 7 at 11 a.m., when they host Wesleyan University.