SAN ANGELO, Texas - The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program competed in the first round of the ITA South Central Regional at the ASU Tennis Courts on Thursday hosted by Lone Star Conference foe Angelo State.
The sophomore duo of Alessa Maier (Hechingen, Germany) and Milou ter Morsche (Goor, Netherlands) headlined the Javelinas at the regional as both picked up a pair of wins in the singles bracket.
Maier squared off with UT Permian Basin's Rhea Singh in the first matchup of the day and turned in a straight-set win at 6-3 and 6-4. She followed that performance up with another hard-fought win in the second round by straight sets as she downed Gabi Ioannou from St. Mary's, 6-4 and 7-5.
Maier's second-day opponent will be eighth-seeded Brooklyn Ross from UT Tyler.
Ter Morsche, meanwhile, defeated 12th-seeded Karolina Glowinska from Cameron in back-to-back sets, 6-1 and 6-4, and needed three sets to take down Madison Stafford from DBU in the second matchup.
Ter Morsche grabbed the first set, 6-4, while Stafford took the second with an identical 6-4 final. The decisive set went in favor of the Javelina, however, at 6-2. Ter Morsche will see Hannah Yip from Midwestern State on the second day of competition.
Other Javelinas in the first singles bracket include 10th-seeded junior Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.), sophomores Raina Zaffar (Guwahati, India) and Noemi Sante (Düsseldorf, Germany), and newcomer Manuela Turolo (Cividale del Friuli, Italy).
Donkor fell in three sets to Ramita Irrinki from Angelo State. Donkor secured the first set, 6-4, before Irrinki took the final two at 6-3 and 7-5. Donkor rebounded in the consolation bracket with a straight-set win over Chloe Dix from UTT, 6-1 and 6-1. Her opponent on the second day will be Kajsa Gedlitschka from Western New Mexico.
Zaffar fell to 16th-seeded Caroline Hudson from DBU in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-2. She battled back with a straight-set win of her own in the second matchup, 6-3 and 7-6 (5) over UTPB's Lisa Guitton. She faces Kyndall Quiroz from Midwestern State on the second day.
Sante dropped a consecutive-set decision to ASU's Eva Schwartz, 6-2 and 7-5, and will face off with 11th-seeded Julia Tozzi from WNMU on the second day.
Turolo also took a three-set loss in her first matchup of the day to MSU's Skylar Minns. Minns took the first set, 6-4, as Turolo forced a third set with a hard-fought 7-6 (4) decision in the second, but Minns won out the final set at 6-3.
Turolo followed that up with a three-set win of her own at the expense of the Patriots' Ira Vogelmann. Turolo picked up the first, 6-3, but Vogelmann stole the second, 7-5, before Turolo won out in the third, 10-7. She will face a Rattler on the second day in the form of Alice Thane.
Sophomore Jana Knaab (Stuttgart, Germany) represented the Blue and Gold in the second singles bracket of the regional. She started off with pool play on the first day and took back-to-back straight-set wins to open her run in the tournament.
Knaab bested Western New Mexico's Julia Terrazas, 6-2 and 6-1, and followed up with a win of DBU's Sarah Castleberry, 6-2 and 6-3, to draw the second seed in her bracket for the second day. She faces MSU's Kanaha Furutani to begin bracket play on Friday.
Maier and Zaffar teamed up in the doubles bracket and turned in an 8-4 win in their first matchup against the Aggies' Magda Wawrowska and Pilar Jaurena. The tandem took another win in their second matchup, this time 8-5 over Grace Gaskins and Sanne Janssen from DBU, to advance to the second day of play.
The Javelina pair will see Chloe Dix and Gaini Ibrasheva from UT Tyler in Friday's competition.
Donkor and Sante paired off in doubles play and defeated Tozzi and Livia Leite in the first matchup, 8-6. Their second opponent was second-seeded Ashley Penshorn and Marina Vigil from StMU as the Rattler tandem took down Donkor and Sante, 8-6.
Turolo and ter Morsche faced the DBU duo of Adriana Carpenter and Sofia Teran in the first matchup but dropped the decision, 8-5. Their competition on the second day will be the MSU tandem of Emilija Visic and Sydney Williams.
Day two of the regional gets underway at 8:15 a.m. at the ASU Tennis Courts, while doubles play takes place later in the afternoon.
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