Brandeis women’s tennis team saw action in back-to-back weekends to begin their fall season, first competing at the Wallach Doubles Invitational hosted by Bates College in Lewiston, ME, and then again at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Women’s Regional hosted by Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT.
At Bates, the Judges sent two pairs of doubles partners to compete for the weekend. First, Diana Dehterevich ’20 and partner Lauren Bertsch ’21 took on the hosting Bobcats to open up round two, defeating them handily by an overall score of 8-0. In round two, Isabel Cepeda ’21 and Ana Hatfield ’22 defeated Bates again by an 8-2 margin. Next in the quarterfinals, Dehterevich and Bertsch moved on to play against opponents from Merrimack College, defeating them by a closer score of 8-6. This is where Cepeda and Hatfield fell to the Bowdoin Polar Bears, falling 8-0.
With the win over the Merrimack Warriors, the duo of Dehtererich and Bertsch then advanced to the finals, taking on another pair from Bowdoin. After a hard-fought match, the team fell by a score of 8-6, being named the runner up. In the consolation bracket, Cepeda and Hatfield defeated Merrimack by a close margin of 8-7(6). Also in consolation play, Cepeda and Grace Wang ’23 fell to opponents from Colby College in an 8-1 fashion to close out the tournament.
In the ITA regional the following weekend, Dehterevich had yet another impressive showing, making it all the way to the round of sixteen. She was seeded at 9-19, first taking on a Middlebury Panther, the host of the tournament, and won in a three match set by scores of 6-1, 6-7, 10-5. Next, she took on the Babson Beavers on the second day of matches, winning handily by scores of 6-3, 6-2. Lastly, in the round of sixteen, Dehterevich could not continue the streak, falling to MIT in a lengthy match, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 10-4.
Hatfield also advanced past the first round as she beat an opponent from Springfield 6-2, 6-2 to make it to round two. She then fell to the Tufts University Jumbos by the exact same score in the following match. For Bertsch and Cepeda, their first round competition proved to be quite tough, as Bertsch lost to a sixth-seeded Wesleyan 6-1, 6-0, and Cepeda also yielded a loss to Wellesley with scores of 6-2, 6-4.
The Judges also competed in the doubles category, however, Dehterevich and Bertsch did not see the same outcome as the weekend beforehand, as they were upset in the first round by the Amherst Mammoths with a score of 8-6. Hatfield and Cepeda also took the court, putting up a great fight yet still falling 8-5 to the top seeded duo from Tufts.
The Judges will compete again on October 11th and 12th, this time at both Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College in the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament.
