Five Lady Vols Land in Semifinal Matchups

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In a wildly successful Saturday of action at Barksdale Stadium, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers qualified five for the semifinals of the ITA Ohio Valley Regional, three in singles and two in doubles.

Tennessee entered the morning of play with three singles and three doubles competing in the quarterfinals. It took home five of those matchups, none more dominant than Catherine Aulia and Esther Adeshina's doubles bout with ESTU's Laylo Bakhodirova and Fernanda Carvajal. Of the four total doubles matches played, the pairing posted the widest margin of victory in the pro-style, first to eight games format, winning 8-3.

"We took advantage of our opportunity to compete today, and because of that, we get to battle again tomorrow," head coach Alison Ojeda said. "When you get to this point in a tournament, everyone you play is good. The determining factors that separate the good ones from everyone else is how bad you want to be good. We've put the work in this fall and tomorrow we get to see what we are made of."

That determination was on full effect Saturday, as Tennessee's clean sweep of its singles matches all came in three-set battles. Daria Kuczer showed exceptional grit against Kentucky's Florencia Urrutia. After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, 6-7(4), she battled back to get even, then get ahead, taking the match 7-5, 6-1.

Elza Tomase and Rebeka Mertena, the two finalists at this tournament a year ago, advanced to the semifinals with wins of 6-3, 0-6, 7-6(4), and 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, respectively. Tomase's victory came over the second-seeded player in the draw, Celia-Belle Mohr of Vanderbilt, and she faces Anessa Lee, also from Vanderbilt, in the semifinals. Mertena will face a friendly opponent tomorrow as she lines up across the court from Kuczer.

On the doubles side, top-seeded Eleonora Molinaro and Kuczer also find themselves in the semifinals after securing a 8-5 victory over Carmen Gallardo Guevara and Tara Katarina Milic of Purdue. Mertena and Lauren Anzalotta fought hard to make it a sweep on the doubles side as well, but came just short in a tiebreaker, 7-3, to second-seeded Carlota Molina and Elizabeth Stevens from Kentucky.

With a victory in the semifinals tomorrow in either singles or doubles, the individual or doubles pairing would qualify for the ITA National Fall Championship.

Singles matches begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow, followed by doubles play at 12:30. All matches will take place at Barksdale Stadium and admission is free to the public all day.

University of Tennessee Athletics

Related Videos