NEW ORLEANS – Loyola's women's tennis team concluded a long weekend at the 2024 NAIA ITA Gulf Regional on Sunday, with graduate student Lucy Carpenter reaching the finals in the singles tournament. Most of the weekend's matches were played at New Orleans City Park, with a few being held at the XULA Tennis Center, including Sunday's semifinal and final. A full list of results from the regional, including men's results, can be found here.
On the path to Sunday's semifinals, the top-seeded Carpenter defeated Our Lady of the Lake's Sofia Gonzalez, Xavier's Asadah Ma'at, and William Carey's Isabella Lechuga, all in straight sets. LSU Shreveport freshman Pierina Lescher took Carpenter to a tiebreak in the first set, but the Loyola player still won in straight sets to advance to the final. Xavier sophomore Amira Bergaoui won the tournament, with Carpenter unable to come away with a second-set tiebreak win.
"Great showing this weekend for Lucy," said head coach Matt Llewellyn. "She was once again an amazing ambassador for Loyola tennis. She came up just short against a very tough opponent, but she should have an opportunity to make ITA Cup as one of the top NAIA players in the country."
Though Carpenter fell short of a championship win, this was the furthest a Loyola tennis player has advanced in singles competition at the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) regional tournament. The New York native, who joined the Wolf Pack in a shortened 2020-21 season in which she reached the regional singles semifinals, has now been a finalist in both singles and doubles at regionals. She and Fatima Vasquez won the doubles championship in 2022 and were finalists in 2021.
Six different Wolf Pack women's players won their first singles matches Friday, including Carpenter. Avery Frierson secured the first win of the tournament for the Loyola women Friday morning, defeating Nerea Errasti of Texas A&M Texarkana 6-4, 6-2 before falling in the next round. Avrora Volkova also beat a Texarkana player, Ana Paola Gonzalez, in straight sets: 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.
Frierson also teamed up with Ana Cecilia Castillo in doubles, beating a team from Xavier 8-6 before a loss against the fourth seed doubles team from Our Lady of the Lake in the Round of 16. The team of Adele Fereres and Chloe Henderson defeated a Texarkana duo 8-4 before also falling against the fourth seed in the Round of 16.
The sixth seed in the tournament, Henderson got past LSU Shreveport's Sara Sofia Sanchez Molano in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, before dropping her Round of 16 match by the same score. Fereres also advanced into the singles Round of 16 with a third-set super tiebreak win (6-3, 3-6, 10-7) but fell in the Round of 16 against the No. 2 seed.
Micaela Ponce toughed out two wins in the Round of 32 and Round of 16, beating William Carey's Sunny Logan 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 and taking down No. 4 seed McKenna Wheatley from Xavier, 6-2, 6-3. She nearly reached the quarterfinals but was just edged out by LSUS's Lescher in a 10-8 super tiebreak.
Ponce and Carpenter reached the doubles quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed after a win over OLLU in the Round of 16, but they dropped their matchup against eventual Xavier champions Wheatley and Langa.
"Our team overall did not perform up to our standards, unfortunately," Llewellyn said. "We are learning a lot and still have a lot of maturing and growing to do before we realize how great we can be as individuals and most importantly as a team."
The Wolf Pack women's team will compete in another fall tournament next week as Nicholls hosts its Battle Down the Bayou with several NCAA Division-I teams October 4-5. Following the Nicholls invitational is the ITA Cup, where Lucy Carpenter has a strong case for an at-large bid as one of the best singles players in the NAIA. The ITA Cup is set to begin October 10.
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