SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Pirate women’s tennis team competed at the ITA Regionals over the weekend and finished 8-8 after the first day and 3-7 on the final two days of action to wrap up the fall season. Southwestern was able to compete in just one tournament during the fall due to a rain soaked season.

On day one, #10 seed senior Mary Pennington started off strong, easily defeating Kori Stark of (HPU) 6-2, 6-1 and then Emily Kuo of Austin College 6-1,6-2 to advance to the A Draw third round on day two. Pennington fell to #3 seed Michelle Hagler of UT-Tyler 6-2, 6-4 to end her run through the singles matches.

Pennington joined forces with junior Kelly Finn in doubles action on the first day, but the #7 seed was defeated in the first round A Draw doubles 8-3 by Harmon/Rittenhouse of UT-Tyler.

Sophomore Jessica Gaines also advanced to the second round of the A Draw after defeating Hardin-Simmons’ Melissa Yeakle 6-2, 6-4. She fell to #2 seed Griffith of Trinity in the second round 6-2, 6-0.

Junior Sara Fitzsimmons narrowly dropped the first set of her first round match 7-5 to Howard Payne’s Darrah Blackwater but couldn’t pull ahead as she fell 7-5, 6-0. The loss moved Fitzsimmons to the consolation round where she defeated Amy Hathorn of McMurry 6-2,7-5 to advance to face teammate Lali Satyavada in the A Consolation Draw Second Round.

The duo paired up on the same side of the court for doubles action in day one, but were defeated by #2 seed Poettcker/Ekanayake 8-1.

Satyavada advanced there by defeating Cassie Emerson of Howard Payne 6-3,6-0. Satyavada took the 10-4 win over Fitzsimmons to move to the A Consolation Draw Quarterfinals to take on Lauren Diaz of UT-Dallas. She blanked Diaz 10-0 and also breezed through the semifinals, beating UT-Tyler’s Posas 10-5. Satyavada’s run was ended in the A Consolation Draw Finals where she narrowly fell to HSU’s Lauren Jay 10-7.

Also competing for the Pirates were senior Emily Gutzmer, and first-years Abigail Sedory, Kindall Hogenson and Sarah Johnson.

Gutzmer lost her first round A draw singles to #8 Lauren Nielsen of UTT 6-2, 6-0 but rebounded to defeat Margaret Edwards (AC) 6-2,6-1. She fell in the A Consolation Draw second round to Nassar of UTD 10-3 the following day.

In doubles action, Gutzmer joined up with Gaines to take the first round A draw doubles over HSU’s Crouch/Cochran 8-4. The duo fell to #5 Hermsdorf/McRae 8-3 in the second round.

Sedory dropped her first round B Draw singles to Summer Smith of UTT 7-5, 6-2 and fell again to Loftus of UMHB 8-2. On the doubles side, she joined up with Johnson for the first round B Draw doubles and advanced to the second round after taking down Long/Ramo of UMHB 8-4 before losing to Neale/Filipowicz of Trinity 8-4.

Johnson narrowly fell in the second round B Draw singles 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 to McMurry’s Mauldin.

Hogenson won her first round B Draw singles and took down Bailey of Austin College 6-2, 6-2 in the second round to advance on. In the semifinal match she fell to Wilkins of UTT 8-1.

The ITA Regionals marks the end of the fall competition for the Pirates. Their next match will be February 12th at the UMHB Invitational in Belton, Texas.