Sports > October 30, 2008

By Alex Botoman | Staff writer

Members of the women’s tennis team went a combined 10-5 in singles and 2-3 in doubles in the ITA Southeast Regional Championship, which was hosted by Wake Forest and held at the Indoor Tennis Center, Oct. 15-20.

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A women’s tennis player serves the ball during a match last year. The team finished their fall season with the Regional ITA competition. (Old Gold & Black file photo)

The Wake contingent was led by junior Sasha Kulikova. The No. 50-ranked Kulikova was the No. 8 seed in the singles draw.

In her first match she shutout Laura Kriett of George Washington, 6-0, 6-0. Kulikova followed that up by defeating Zsofia Zubor of Tennessee 6-3, 6-2.

However, in the round of 16, she was upset by Keilly Ulery of Vanderbilt 3-6, 6-0, 7-5.

Senior Sierra Poske also put on a good showing for the Deacons. In her first match she took down No. 118 Christine Johnston of Kentucky 6-4, 6-1.

In her next match, she edged out a close first set against No. 9-seeded Monica Arguello of Furman, and she ran away with the second set, winning 7-6(1), 6-0. However, her run also ended in the Round of 16 as she fell 6-3, 7-5 to Duke’s Reka Zslinszka, the No. 17 player in the country.

Senior Christian Tara picked up a tight win in her first match as she took down Svetlana Pimenova of Eastern Kentucky, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. In the next round she started off strong against No. 40-ranked Catherine Newman of Vanderbilt, but she eventually succumbed 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Sophomore Emilee Malvehy dropped her first round match to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Shinann Featherston, 7-5, 6-0.

Freshman Ryann Cutillo defeated Alena Krutkina of Tennessee Tech and Karina Kedzo of East Tennessee State in the pre-qualifying draw and Daniela Lovera of USC-Upstate and Jessica Preeg of Furman in the qualifying draw to advance to the main draw.

However, Cutillo lost her first main draw match, 6-1, 6-4, to No. 9-seeded Josipa Bek of Clemson. Bek went on to win the singles championship.

Sophomore Kat Reveche won her first match in the qualifying draw against Jocelyn Ffriend of UNC-Chapel Hill, but she fell in the second qualifying round to Tara Bryne of East Tennessee State.

The Deacons also entered three doubles teams into the competition. The No. 9-seeded team of Kulikova and Poske easily won their first match against Jenny Gomez and Amy Beavers of George Washington, 8-1.

However, they were eliminated in the next round, losing 8-4 to Jennifer Meredith and Natalie Pluskota of Tennessee.

The team of Malvehy and Tara dominated Tatiana Denezhikina and Joanna Corkern of Tennessee Tech, 8-0.

In the next round they came up against Furman’s No. 7-seeded team of Laura Gioia and Arguello, and they lost 8-5.

Reveche and Cutillo lost their first match against No. 9 seeds Keri Wong and Ida Hedziselimovic of Clemson, 8-1.

The Southeast Regional Championships is one of eight Regional Championships held around the country, and it brings together the best collegiate players from the Southeast to compete in single elimination singles and doubles play.

Clemson’s Josipa Bek claimed the singles title while North Carolina duo of Sanaz Marand and Sophie Grabinski earned the doubles title.

The champion and finalist of each Regional Championship qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships held in Charlottesville, Va., Nov. 6-9. Since Wake Forest did not have any players qualify for the Indoor Championships, the Regional Championships marked the culmination of their fall season.

The Demon Deacons will begin dual match on Jan. 17.