Rice Women’s Tennis Recap – Wilson/ITA Southwest Regional Day 1

FORT WORTH (October 24, 2008) The Rice women’s tennis team turned in an impressive effort by winning seven of its nine matches Thursday to open the Wilson/ITA Southwest Regional Championships at the Bayard H. Freidman Tennis Center on the TCU campus.

Seeds Varsha Shiva-Shankar and Alex Rasch won a pair of singles matches in qualifying. The duo will have a chance to qualify for the main singles draw Friday at 9am.

No. 14 seed Rasch reeled off a 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 victory against UTSA’s Holly Phillips. She rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Northwestern State’s Daniela Posada in the second round.

No. 16 seed Shiva-Shankar took down Texas State’s Saskia Kruse 6-1, 6-4 and emerged with a 6-2, 7-5 triumph over Northwestern State’s Bianca Schultz in round two.

“This is an important tournament for us,” head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. “We get an opportunity to see how we stack up against everyone else in our region. This type of start is definitely how we wanted to set the tone for the weekend.”

Emily Braid regrouped after losing the first set 6-0 to SMU’s Casey Kennedy. The North Carolina native recorded a gritty 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 decision. She lost to No. 7 seed Narine Kazarova of North Texas 6-1, 6-1 in the second round.

Rice notched a 2-1 mark in doubles play. Julie Chao and Ana Guzman along with Shiva-Shankar and Braid each tallied tight 8-6 victories defeating Texas Tech’s Kerryn Potgieter and Simone Templeton and No. 15 Sarah Lancaster and Maggie Mello of Texas. Rebecca Lin and Rasch battled before falling 8-5 against No. 11 seed Amanda Craddock and Krista Damico of Texas.

“We’ve been working on being aggressive in doubles and I thought all three teams improved in this area,” Schmidt said. “There was no doubt that we brought pressure early in each match. It was a big win for Varsha and Emily to upset a seed.”

Qualifying singles starts day two before the Round of 32 doubles action. Day two wraps up as Chao, Guzman and Lin open singles play in the main draw.

Singles
No. 14 Rasch (RU) def. Phillips (UTSA), 6-1, 6-7, 6-2
No. 14 Rasch (RU) def. Posada (NSU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 16 Shiva-Shankar (RU) def. Kruse (TSU), 6-1, 6-4
No. 16 Shiva-Shankar (RU) def. Schulz (NSU), 6-2, 7-5
Braid (RU) def. Kennedy (SMU), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
Kazarova (UNT) def. Braid (RU), 6-1, 6-1

Doubles
Chao/Guzman (RU) def. Potgeiter/Tempelton (TTU) 8-6
Braid/Shiva-Shankar (RU) def. Lancaster/Mello (UT) 8-6
Craddock/Damico (UT) def. Lin/Rasch (RU) 8-5