WOMEN’S TENNIS

The Huntington women’s tennis team had a strong showing at the 2018 ITA Midwest Regional Championship hosted by Indiana Wesleyan September 13-15.

Highlighting the three-day event was the play of freshman Morgan Fitzpatrick who made it to the final four of the 64-player singles bracket as the 11th seed. The Monrovia native breezed past IWU’s Rachel Baker (6-1, 6-1) in the opening round.

Fitzpatrick then picked up wins over Carrie Copeland of Grace (6-3, 6-4) and Vero Jimenez of Indiana Tech (2-6, 6-1, 10-3) before knocking off 4th-seeded Maddie Bemsiderfer of IWU, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the final four where eventual winner and top-seeded Lizzie Bauss got the best of her, 6-1, 6-1.

In the 32-team doubles bracket, Fitzpatrick teamed up with Meg Dolde to beat a Taylor and Grace duo to climb into the quarterfinals where Forester teammates Lanae Singleton and Lisa Colling played spoiler to their run by handing the pair an 8-3 loss.

Singleton and Colling’s path to the final four included wins over Taylor and IWU prior to knocking out their fellow teammates. They finally met their match against eventual champs in IWU’s Thewuni Devaraja and Bemisderfer who outlasted the HU tandem 8-6.

In other singles action, 10th-seeded Dolde outplayed her ranking by making it to the Elite Eight. Her first three wins were in straight sets over Taylor’s Julianna Hotmire, Lawrence Tech’s Maria Alvarez and Devaraja before she conceded to UNOH’s Camila Puenta, 7-5, 6-1.

Singleton and Colling each won their opening round match in singles play beating Taylor’s Courtney Clark and IU East’s Brooklyn Hubbard respectively.

“I am very proud of all our players’ performances at the ITA tournament,” said Coach Ferguson. “All of the ladies raised their level of play and represented HU at a high level.”

The Foresters (5-1, 4-1) host Taylor on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.