WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Through the first day of the 2010 Middle Atlantic Conference Women’s Individual Tennis Championships on Saturday at the Ralston Field Complex at Kirby Park, three Lycoming College women’s tennis players are alive in their singles flights and one doubles team is also alive heading into the semifinal rounds on Sunday, Oct. 9. Play will resume at the championships at 9 a.m. with the singles semifinals.
Freshman Sayumi Akashi (Kanagawa, Japan/University of the Sacred Heart) reached the semifinals at No. 2 singles with a pair of double-bagel wins, posting a 6-0, 6-0 win over Arcadia’s Beth Osipowicz and a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kaitlin Kimmel of Albright in the quarterfinals. She will face Victoria Byble of Wilkes in the semifinals and if she wins, she will face the winner of the match between Madison Pipkin of Elizabethtown and Breanne Phillips of Misericordia in the finals.
Senior Rebecca Reynolds (South Williamsport, Pa./South Williamsport) advanced to the semifinals at the tournament for the first time in her career, reaching the round in the fourth flight of singles by posting a 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinals win over Elizabethtown’s Jessica Holden. Reynolds will face Manhattenville’s Kaitlin Triano in the semifinals and if she wins, will face the winner of the match between Wilkes’ Rebekah Shanaman and Alvernia’s Laura Ehnes in the finals.
Rounding out the Warriors semifinalists, freshman Ellen Philips (Muncy, Pa./Muncy) moved into the round in the sixth flight by posting a 6-0, 6-0 win over Gliceida Galaraza-Fortuna of Manhattenville in the opening round and a 6-0, 6-1 win over Eastern’s Amanda Prescott in the quarterfinals. Phillips will face Amanda Holyk of Wilkes in the semifinals and if she wins, will face the winner of the match between Alyssa Neill of Elizabethtown and Kristen Chen of Messiah in the finals.
In the third flight of doubles, freshman Kathy Jacobs (Milton, Pa./Milton) and sophomore Adriana Rivera (Bethlehem, Pa./Liberty) posted an 8-6 win over Laura Ehnes and Katherine Ghiorri of Alvernia in the first round and added an 8-2 win over an Arcadia pairing to move into the semifinals where they will face the team of Shanaman and Michelle Knight of Wilkes.
At No. 1 singles, sophomore Megan Gardner (Hughesville, Pa./Hughesville) won her opening round match in a super-set tiebreak, 5-7, 6-2, 10-4 over Lebanon Valley’s Shayna Heintzelman before falling to Alvernia’s Jenny McKee, 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
Freshman Linda Fogg (Topsham, Maine/Mt. Ararat) fell in her opening singles match in the third flight of singles in a super-set tiebreaker to Rachael Hoffnagel of King’s, 6-3, 1-6, 13-11. Jacobs, playing in the fifth flight, fell to Alvernia’s Karoline Miller, 6-0, 6-2. In doubles play, the first flight team of Gardner and Akashi and the second flight team of Reynolds and Fogg both fell in the first rounds.
