Following an undefeated last season, Quinnipiac women’s tennis opened up their 50th season with its Hidden Duals Tournament — but didn’t quite get the chance to finish it.
“I just found out about this yesterday,” head coach Paula Miller laughed at the mention of the milestone. “We are in the works of planning something. Hopefully over alumni weekend we can kind of incorporate that.”
The Bobcats hosted a three-day hidden duals tournament, playing Marist, UConn and Fairfield — or they would’ve, but their last game against Fairfield was canceled due to rain.
Hidden duals means that there is no team scoring for the games played, but the scores still count for individual statistics, and these pre-season tournaments are a good place for the team to figure out where they stand and how to structure the team. Quinnipiac’s included the aforementioned Marist, Fairfield, UConn and Army and St. Francis, that Quinnipiac did not face.
The Bobcats came prepared to show that they are more than ready to build on their last year and continue their success, with a “win” against their conference opponent the Marist Red Foxes.
“We played really well for the first weekend out,” Miller said. “That’s our goal for the fall, just compete and work hard and get ready for the spring.”
Sophomore Willow Renton had the longest match against Marist’s sophomore Viktoria Lorenzton, winning in a super tiebreak. The Bobcat was recently named into the pre-qualifying rounds of the ITA All-American Championships, the first one to get this honour in the history of the program.
“First ever player to qualify for that, it is exciting,” Miller said. “Just playing those matches is getting her ready for when we go to North Carolina and compete against the best in all of DI colleges.”
The ITA All-American Tournament is made up from pre-qualifying rounds, qualifying rounds and main draw. This year they will be held on Sept. 20-28 in Cary, North Carolina.
She will be joined by Miller and another player as support.
Renton dominating isn’t anything new, but sophomore Catlin Flower held her own as well, supporting Renton in doubles as well as easily cruising past her match.
Quinnipiac’s newest additions got their own moments to shine as well. Junior Isabella Baker hails from Bowling Green State University, where she went from 21 wins in her freshman year to only one game played her second year. She supported her transfer partner and former BGSU teammate, junior Lilly Black.
Black saw no action while at BGSU, but in her first game as a Bobcat, she sailed past her opponent easily in two 6-3 sets.
But while the Bobcats were prepared to face the Red Foxes, their Saturday match up against UConn was a different story.
Because UConn has a smaller team than Quinnipiac, not all of the players got to play. Renton, Flower and Black were back in the line-up, but head coach Paula Miller put in some more familiar faces as well, in the form of senior Vera Sekerina and junior Anagha Sankhar.
While Flower and Black fought out their wins, Renton fell at the hands of UConn’s junior Ela Platenikova.
The team’s only freshman Isabella Sicignano played one doubles match with sophomore Caroline Schulson and officially got her first collegiate tennis win. This duo alongside Black and Baker “earned” the team the doubles point, while Renton and Flower fell to the duo of Platenikova and junior Victoria Matos.
So the Bobcats were technically tied 1-1 for this tournament. Maybe they would’ve “won” maybe they wouldn’t have, but these hidden duals showed that their last loss to Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament did not break Quinnipiac’s spirit at all.
“We concentrate on being agressive,” Miller said. “I think that was something where we could’ve done a little bit better, but the nerves got the best of us the first match back.”
The Bobcats now have a little break before they head to West Point, N.Y., for the West Point Hidden Duals at Army on Sept. 26.
A MAAC Masters Tournament on Oct. 3, and ITA Regional Championship at Harvard on Oct. 9, will wrap up Quinnipiac’s fall tournament season.
