Liberty University
ITA Atlantic Regional
Lady Flames Post Strong First Round of ITA Atlantic Regional
10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Liberty Lady Flames tennis squad finished the first day of the ITA Atlantic Regional with a 6-2 overall record in both singles and doubles action. The Lady Flames finished 4-2 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles competition.
Thursday began with the first two rounds of the qualifying singles draw. Liberty had three representatives compete in the qualifying singles bracket. Sophomore Evangeline Crist fell in three sets to Cassandre Thebault of Maryland, despite claiming the first set. Crist capitalized on a few of Thebault's miscues to capture the first set, 7-5. However the Terrapins junior claimed the second and third sets, 6-4. 6-2. Thebault would go on to advance to the main draw following a victory over Caroline Lewis of West Virginia in the qualifying singles round of 16. Crist later defeated Marija Bogisevic of Marshall in a back-draw competition, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Anna Dollar was the second Lady Flame in the qualifying singles draw. The freshman defeated in-state opponent Emma Petersen of James Madison in three sets. Dollar blanked Petersen to open competition, 6-0. However Petersen proved resilient and downed Dollar in the second set, 6-3. The two battled neck-and-neck in the third set as the Liberty freshman took the 6-5 lead. With Dollar ahead 40-30 in the 12th game of the third set, Petersen mishandled a serve from Dollar and sent the ball outside the lines, giving the Pennsylvania native the 7-5 third set victory. Dollar then squared off against Victoria Olivarez of Virginia with the hopes of reaching the main singles draw. However, Dollar came up short against Olivarez, losing 7-5, 7-5.
Emily Groeneveld was the lone Lady Flame to reach the main draw from the qualifying singles bracket. The junior notched a straight set victory (6-3, 7-6) over Amanda Keller of Navy to begin play in the round of 32. The Florida native's next opponent proved to be a tougher matchup as Abby Amos of James Madison took Groeneveld into three sets before being forced to retire due to an injury. Groeneveld fell in the first set, 6-3 but bounced back to win the second set with a 6-3 advantage of her own. Groeneveld was ahead 3-1 after winning a game-point when Amos withdrew from the competition. Groeneveld claimed the No. 6 qualifier spot and will compete against Ilinca Stoica of Virginia Tech in the Round of 64 main draw tomorrow at 10 am. The junior joins Belen Rivera and Maria Khval as the only Liberty representatives in the main draw tomorrow.
In doubles competition, Crist and Valerie Thong paired up to defeat Yevgeniya Shusterman and Lucy Williams of Towson, 8-0 to advance to the round of 32 in the main doubles draw. Crist and Thong joined forces a season ago to claim 22 doubles wins, the most in a single season in Liberty history. Following today's double win, the doubles tandem is off to a 4-0 start this fall.
The other Liberty doubles win came from the team of Groeneveld and Rivera. The duo joined together to down James Madison's Amos/Rebecca Harris, 8-7 (10-8).
The tournament will continue play tomorrow morning with main draw singles beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by both the round of 32 and round of 16 doubles in the afternoon beginning at 2:30 p.m.
