Jumbos open with strong showing in first tournament

The women's tennis team had a strong performance this past weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) New England Regional Championships at Middlebury College, sending three Jumbos to the round of 16 out of a pool of 64 players and one doubles team to the second round.

Sophomore Zoe Miller and first-years Mina Karamercan and Julia Keller all won their first two matches to reach the third round. Miller defeated Bates’ sophomore Maisie Silverman (6-3, 6-3) and Wesleyan’s sophomore Nicole McCann (6-0, 6-2) to reach the round of 16. Karamercan came out strong in her college debut, defeating Wellesley’s junior Carina Chen (6-0, 6-0) and then Babson’s sophomore No. 9-16 seed, Yagmur Akgul, 6-0, 6-2 to join Miller in the third round. To join her two teammates, Keller defeated Middlebury’s Molly Paradies, a freshman, in a tightly contested three-set match (3-6, 6-2, 12-10) and then won by default over MIT’s Elyssa Kohrs, the No. 6 seed. All three players were defeated in the round of 16.

“[Miller, Karamercan and Keller] all reached the round of 16 in singles, which is impressive since our region is the strongest one in the country,” coach Kate Bayard told the Daily in an email. “At the same time, I know the three who reached the round of 16 were not satisfied. Also, Tomo [Iwasaki] and Lauren [Louks] went undefeated in their consolation matches on day two. I'm proud that they came out just as eager after losing in the main draw.”

Karamercan and fellow first-year Otilita Popa also won their first match in doubles. They defeated sophomore Emily Eska and freshman Sophia He of Brandeis 8-1, but were eliminated in a close match, 9-7, by the sixth seeded team of Ria Gerger, a sophomore, and Christina Puccinelli, a freshman, of Middlebury.

“I saw a lot of potential in our doubles,” Bayard said. “[Popa] is a natural on the doubles court. I'm happy that the others got to see [Popa] and [Karamercan] play their second round match, and come so close against a top team in the region. This was their first tournament playing together, and it was exciting to see them gel so quickly.”

The weekend was an exciting one for the Jumbos, as it featured young talent in a tournament only attended by schools' best players.

“I think our performance was strong overall,” Miller said. “I think that was due to the great energy that we had coming into this season. We’re still a young team and we have a lot of new talent.”

“I like that everyone who competed knows they can go further, and they are willing to work for it,” Bayard said. “Each team member came up with takeaways from singles and doubles from the weekend. While it varies a bit from person to person, we have a few themes we'll be working on in the coming weeks. We found that the players our three lost to in the round of 16 were hitting a heavier point building ball. This is something we will continue to work on.”

Of the six players that traveled to the tournament, four were first-years and two were sophomores. The team currently has four juniors studying abroad who will return to the team in the spring. Because of the team's small size, there had to be adjustments made to this year's schedule and training.

“Usually we would play a few dual matches against another school in the fall, but because so much of our team is gone, we’re pushing it to the spring,” Miller said. “Instead, we’re focused on spending more time on practicing and a lot of doubles strategy. So for this last tournament [coming up] it’s going to be all about getting more experience in doubles play. Because it’s a tournament, it’s still an individual competition, it’s not like one team comes out as a winner. It’s going to be each person competing for themselves, but also representing the team, which is always the balance."

The Jumbos will travel to the Bowdoin Invitational in mid-October as the team begins its preparations for the spring season, which starts in late March.