ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Lake Superior State (LSSU) women's tennis program had a showing to be proud of at the 2024 Midwest Region Fall ITA Tournament, highlighted by senior
Maddie Whip (Sydney, Australia) coming out on top as the champion of the Draw A consolation bracket on Monday.
"This team defied any expectations that I may have had for them coming into this tournament," said Interim Head Coach Chase Ward. "All six of these young ladies competed extremely hard over the weekend, and I believe that they have what it takes to make some noise this year."
The aforementioned Whip did not get off to a hot start in her opening match on Saturday, falling in her first match to the No. 5 overall seeded Paula Ballesteros from Southwest Baptist, but she would respond in force in the back draw, besting Maryville's Nazli Saka 6-3, 6-2 before picking up another pair of singles wins on Sunday against McKendree's Ivana Milkova (6-3, 6-0) and Rockhurst's Sofia Valdespino (7-5, 6-3) to earn the right to stay an extra night for Championship Monday. Her scheduled matchup in the bracket semifinals resulted in a win by default due to an injury withdrawal, but she was determined to not hold anything back in the championship match, dominating the likes of UIndy's Sofia Cardenas by a margin of 6-0, 6-3 to accomplish something only a select few can claim, leaving the ITA tournament after a win.
Draw A also saw strong showings from LSSU's
Tayla Brasier (Bathurst, Australia) and
Trinity Ly (Brampton, Ontario). While neither were able to earn a singles win at the tournament, they were each still able to claim a performance to be proud of with Ly falling by the narrowest of margins in a 10-8 super-tiebreaker against Ferris State's Ana Sofia Hernandez Ferrer and Brasier also getting to within 8-10 in a 10-point super-tiebreaker against Cardenas who eventually made it all the way to the bracket finals before being defeated by Whip.
In B Draw singles,
Martina Oviedo (Cordoba, Argentina) put up quite the fight in a pair of singles matches, taking her opponents to third set super-tiebreakers on both occasions, only falling by a combined 6 points across both matches.
Meanwhile,
Valentina Parodi (Albissola Marina, Italy) fell to Saginaw Valley's Elizabeth Stuart by a margin of 6-3, 6-3 after winning the first round matchup via walkover, and first-year player Kyna Decruy (Melbourne, Australia) earned the first singles win of her collegiate career with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over GLIAC newcomer Fabiola Rivas of Roosevelt.
In doubles, Whip/Parodi nearly shocked the entire region, giving the no. 1 overall seed in the draw A doubles bracket all they could handle before narrowly falling 8-6. Had the doubles matches been standard sets rather than 8-game pro sets, Whip and Parodi would have won 6-4. The duo would go on to defeat Jordane Dookie and Anabel Aguilar of Lewis 8-5 in the back draw before falling to the eventual draw A consolation bracket champions Hernandez Ferrer and Parker Nolan of Ferris State.
Oviedo/Decruy secured a 6-2 opening round victory over Brittney Kelly and Nora Hennessy of Quincy before narrowly falling to the No. 2 seeded team in the bracket from Findlay. Meanwhile, Brasier/Ly had a doubles run to remember. After getting through the first round via walkover, the duo picked up a pair of wins on Sunday over Emily Rose and Efthymia Vasiliki Konstantatou of Michigan Tech and Aleksandra Chmir and Olesya Ivashchuk of Walsh, earning a match on championship Monday. However, despite a strong performance in the semifinals against Joelle Tabernal and Lena Greefs of McKendree, the pair's run would unfortunately come to an end in what turned out to be one of the most thrilling and highly competitive matches of the entire tournament.
The Lakers will now spend the next month preparing for their first dual match when they travel to face the Ashland Eagles on Saturday, Oct. 12 with the first serve scheduled for 1 p.m.
