Kamal Advances in Singles Play, Both SFA Doubles Teams Move On at ITA Regionals
10/13/2017 7:41:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Complete Results
FORT WORTH, Texas - Stephen F. Austin women's tennis sophomore Nida Kamal advanced to the round of 32 in singles play at the ITA Texas Regional Tournament at TCU on Friday afternoon.
Kamal, one of two newcomers on the Ladyjacks' roster in 2017-18, moved past SMU's Karina Traxler who retired due to injury and in her first one-on-one action of the tournament bested Texas Southern's Sofia Murcia by a 6-3, 6-0 score. Kamal returns to the courts at noon on Saturday for a bout with Texas player Bojana Markovic.
All of the Ladyjacks' other singles players - Gabi Guilarte, Siân Payne and Darinka Tiboldi won their opening matches, too. Guilarte captured a 6-3, 6-2 win over North Texas player Alexandra Heczey and moved on to the round of 32 with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Incarante Word's Matea Zemunik.
Payne secured a 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3 win over Texas Southern's Julia Navaio but fell to Texas Tech's Alexandra Angyalosy 6-1, 6-1.
Receiving an automatic bye into the round of 64, Tiboldi dropped a hard-fought 6-2, 7-6 (7) bout against SMU's Charline Anselmo.
The doubles tandem of Siân Payne and Darinka Tiboldi enjoyed a great deal of success as well, becoming the only doubles squad to advance to the round of 16. In their first match of the regional, SFA's sophomores downed the Abilene Christian duo of Jordan Henry and Ileana Mocciola by an 8-4 tally and after UT Arlington's team of Anna Wichert and Augustana Serio pulled out, the Ladyjacks moved on to the round of 16 by default.
Guilarte and Kamal got by UT Arlington's Almudena Boza and Nanaka Takeuchi 8-5 in their first match of the regional and will take on the SMU team of Tiffany Hollebeck and Nicole Petchey at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
-SFA-
