From Emory University Athletics
The Emory University women's tennis team got off to a terrific start at the USTA/ITA South Regional Championships on Friday. Every Emory player won their first round match and 11 Eagles reached the Round of 16 in the singles draw. On the day, Emory players went 21-2 in their singles matches. In the doubles main draw, the Eagles were a perfect 10-0 as all six pairings reached the quarterfinals in the draw.
After receiving a first round bye, top seed Michelle Satterfield breezed past Neha Rao of Centre 6-2, 6-2 to move into the Round of 16. Satterfield will face Paula Castro after Castro won both her matches on Friday. In the first round, Castro did not lose a game in defeating Sewanee's Bea Benavides and then beat Haley Tucker, also from Sewanee, 7-5, 6-2. Beatrice Rosen, the 2014 ITA Regional Champion, also had a bye in the first round and easily defeated her second round opponent, Aliza Williams from Centre, 6-1-6-2 to advance to the third round. Rosen will face teammate Anna Fuhr in the Round of 16 after Fuhr defeated Rhodes' Morgan Williams (6-0, 6-1) and Sewanee's Mary Jane McCaghren (6-0, 7-6).
In addition to the Fuhr/Rosen and Satterfield/Castro matchups, there will be two other Round of 16 matches featuring an all-Eagles pairing on Saturday. Melissa Goodman, who received Emory's other first round bye, won against Centre's Emily Zelichinok 6-1, 6-1 to advance to Saturday's action. She will face Daniella Moreno-Kaste who did not lose a single game in her two matches on Friday, coasting by Belhaven's Brittany Keeling and Birmingham Southern's Sara Cohen. Madison Gordon and Katarina Su will meet each other on Saturday morning after the pair were victorious on Friday. Gordon knocked off Ann Meg Keatley of Sewanee 6-0, 6-0 and then Ann Marie Kimball of Belhaven in three sets, 4-6, 6-0, 10-8. Su dropped just two games over the course of her two matches, defeating Sewanee's Elske Parker 6-0, 6-0 and Millsaps' Ashley Ford 6-1, 6-1.
Bridget Harding, the field's sixth overall seed, Taylor Cosme and Daniela Lopez rounded out the 11 Eagles advancing to the Round of 16 on Saturday. Harding won easily 6-0, 6-0 in the first round against Belhaven's Taylor White before winning 6-1, 6-3 against Emory and Henry's Sveva Mazzari in the second round. Cosme picked up two wins on the day, losing just one game total. She blanked Sewanee's Sara Thompson 6-0, 6-0 before making quick work of Shannon Cruz of Oglethorpe 6-0, 6-1. Lopez beat Belhaven's Caroline Taylor in short order 6-0, 6-0 before knocking out BSC's Carlee Petro 6-4, 6-0 in the second round.
Marissa Levine won her first round match as did Stephanie Loutsenko but both Eagles fell in the second round to their respective opponents. Levine defeated Methodist's Ashton Walker 6-2, 6-2 before falling in three sets to Sewanee's Clementina Davila 6-0, 4-6, 10-8. Loutsenko won easily in the first round 6-0, 6-1 over Centre's Mackenzie Snow before bowing out to Sewanee's Maggie Crumbliss 6-4, 6-3.
In the doubles main draw, top seed Satterfield and Fuhr reached the quarterfinals, defeating Methodist's Landis/Walker 8-1. They will face the duo of Loutsenko and Cosme who beat a pair from Belhaven 8-0 before knocking off Williams/Zelichenok from Centre 8-5. Goodman and Lopez dropped just one game in their two matches on Friday, winning 8-0 over Oglethorpe's Walker/Johnson and 8-1 over Rhodes' Volkov/Doherty.
On the other side of the bracket, Su and Harding made quick work of NC Wesleyan's Lopez/Barber, winning 8-0, after the pair had a bye in the first round. Su/Harding will face teammates Castro and Moreno-Kaste in the quarterfinals after Castro/Moreno-Kaste knocked off their two opponents from Centre and Sewanee by identical 8-1 scores. And lastly, Gordon and Rosen reached the quarterfinals winning 8-1 over Covenant's DeLuca/Geving and 8-2 over Sewanee's Benavides/Childress.