After winning its season opening match again Wheaton College, the Brandeis women’s tennis team had reason to feel confident heading into last weekend’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Regional Tournament.
The event, co-hosted by Babson and Wellesley Colleges in nearby Wellesley, featured competitors from 25 schools throughout the Northeast.
Per ITA rules, each school was permitted to send competitors in the first two singles positions, as well as its top doubles team.
Rachel Rosman ’11 and Faith Broderick ’11 answered the call for Brandeis, playing on the singles side and teaming up for doubles competition.
Though seeded fifth in the tournament, Rosman found herself unable to survive the opening round of 64. She fell to a tough opponent, Middlebury’s Leah Kepping ’13 in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0.
Despite being unranked, Kepping, part of the tournament’s top-ranked doubles pair, made it to the quarterfinals in singles play.
Broderick faired a little better, winning her match against Babson’s Sarah Whitaker ’14 before falling to Wheaton’s Catherine Teague ’11.
Having just played Wheaton, the Judges saw a familiar face in Teague. One-on-one, Rosman had defeated the Wheaton senior, seeded ninth, two days earlier.
As a duo, Teague and teammate Sarah Geocaris ’11 bested the Rosman-Broderick pairing 8-4.
In doubles, the Brandeis duo won its first two matches, defeating opponents from Smith and Amherst before being downed 8-2 by a pair from Williams College.
A fresh face to the tournament, Amherst’s Jordan Brewer ’14, was the last woman standing in both the singles and, alongside teammate Gabby Devlin ’14, doubles brackets.
It was Amherst’s fifth doubles crown in the past seven runnings of the ITA Tournament.
The women weren’t Brandeis’ only team to try tournament play during the weekend.
The men’s squad headed down to Providence for the Brown Invitational. Nick White ’11, Mayur Kasetty ’11, Brandon Frank ’14, Adam Brown ’14, Josh Jordan ’13, Tomi Cubrillo ’14, Fred Rozenshteyn ’13 and Dave Yovanoff ’13 competed for Brandeis, the only Division III team to take part in the tournament.
In singles, Yovanoff advanced to the finals of his seventh flight, besting Hofstra’s Matt Gemmell ’14 and Bucknell’s Chris Tortora ’14 before falling to Marist first-year Will Reznek (6-2, 6-2).
Tortora had defeated the Judges’ Jordan 7-6(4) 6-2, in the flight’s first round.
Rozenshteyn and Frank earned fourth place finishes in their respective winner’s brackets.
In an interesting turn, four Judges took to the court, as Brandeis went toe-to-toe with Brandeis in ‘Heart’ draw doubles.
The freshmen pair of Cubrillo and Brown squared off against the elder Jordan and Kasetty. The veterans took the victory, defeating their teammates in a 9-8(4) final.
Another doubles team, White and Yovanoff, finished fourth in their “Circle” draw.
The men are currently playing in the ITA Regionals, set to continue through Sept. 25. The women, on a break from tournament play, next duel with Simmons College on Oct. 3, at Brandeis.
