NEW ORLEANS – The Wolf Pack women's tennis team began the 2022-23 season on Friday, as Loyola joined 10 other schools at the NAIA Gulf ITA Regional Championships.
The three-day event, which started Friday morning at New Orleans City Park, includes players from Blue Mountain, Dillard, Loyola, LSU Alexandria, LSU Shreveport, Our Lady of the Lake, Mobile, SCAD Atlanta, Texas A&M Texarkana, William Carey, and Xavier. The champions in singles and doubles will automatically qualify for the ITA Cup, which begins October 13.
Singles competition was split up into an A-draw and a B-draw, where only players from the A-bracket can qualify for the ITA Cup.
Micaela Ponce's debut was the highlight for the Wolf Pack on Friday. For the first time in her career, the Ecuador native played four matches in one day between singles and doubles, and she won all four. She was the only Loyola player to make the Round of 16 in the singles A-bracket, where she fell against the top overall seed.
Also making her Wolf Pack debut on Friday, Avery Frierson won three matches in the singles B-draw before dropping the championship match. In doubles, Elly Carpenter and Isabella Leaño won their opening round match before falling in the Round of 16.
Ponce played with Ariana Salqueiro-Estela in the doubles tournament, and the duo made it all the way to the semifinal, where they faced Loyola's top doubles tandem from last year, Lucy Carpenter and Fatima Vasquez. Entering the tournament as the No. 3 seed, Carpenter and Vasquez won 8-3 against their fellow Pack members.
Carpenter and Vasquez will now face the No. 1 doubles seed in the tournament, LSU Alexandria's Olivia Scattini and Annemart Kleijn, for an automatic spot in this year's ITA Cup.
"Our teams showed great mental and physical toughness against strong competition. This weekend is a huge challenge for all teams competing. The level is high and the days are very long. We've handled it well and learned a lot about ourselves."
I'm most proud of how we've supported and fought for each other. It's been a total team effort. It's what college tennis is all about and I'm so happy they can experience these moments together."
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