New York- Taking a break from their regularly scheduled program. The Chargers tennis team headed to New York to participate in the ITA Regionals. The tournament lasted over a period of four days (September 15-September 18th), hosted a plethora of teams from different divisions around the United States. The doubles division hosted a total of 64 pairs, while the singles division hosted 128 different athletes. Different then any regular game, New Haven traveled as a team but played individually, as they set off to play in winner takes all tournament style matches.
Starting off the doubles match, the powerhouse doubles team from New Haven consisting of Karim Carreras (Asuncion, Paraguay/Colegio Bautista de Villa Morra) and Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil), started off their weekend tournament with a bye for the first round of 64. After a well-deserved match off, the pair took the courts against a pair from Wilmington for the round of 32. After a hard-fought match, the pair would come up with a 8-6 win, bringing them into the round of 16, where they would face another doubles pair from Wilmington. The Charger duo would pull of an 8-4 win, qualifying them into the semifinal rounds of the tournament. In the semi-finals Ferrarini and Carreras were put up against a tough team from Saint Thomas Aquinas, where their luck would fall 6-4, 6-4 in a two-set match.
Not only did Ferrarini and Carreas dominate in the doubles, but they also made way in their singles debut as well. Karim Carreras (Asuncion, Paraguay/Colegio Bautista de Villa Morra) started off with a first-round bye for the round of 128, making her singles debut in the round of 64 against a player from Queens College. After two hard fought matches, Carreras would fall short 6-2, 6-2.
Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil) would also come into the singles side of the tournament with a first-round bye, sending her straight into the round of 64. In that first game Ferrarini would face an individual from Franklin Pierce, a matchup that the Chargers have seen in their regular season schedule. Ferrarini faced up against Aynara Ferraz Armas, the individual who Ferrarini took on early in the season and would come up short in the tiebreaker set. The first set would favor Franklin Pierce 6-2, but Ferrarini would not go down without a fight, taking the second set 6-4. After two sets, the match went to a tiebreaker third set, where the outcome would favor Franklin Pierce 11-9.
Ferrarini and Carreras were not the only two from the New Haven team to take home some wins during the tournament. A new face to the Chargers this season is Risako Umekuni (Saitama, Japan/Shumei Eiko), who transferred in from Walsh University. Umekuni has been one of the key players for the Chargers thus far this season and was a hard player to beat during the singles matches at the ITA's. Umekuni took on her first match in the round of 128, taking on an individual from Southern New Hampshire University, winning that match 6-4, 6-0. Moving on to the second round, Umekuni would defeat the player from Queens 6-2,6-2 moving into the round of 32. As the singles matches began to dwindle down, Umekuni would be put up against a player from the University of the District of Columbia, where she would play her final match of the tournament, losing 7-5,7-5.
With the wins of doubles pair Kareem Carreras and Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil), the Chargers took home history for the university. The doubles pair was the first pair to make it to the semi-finals in the ITA Regionals in program history.
The blue and gold will take a day off, before returning to their home courts to take on Northeast-10 Conference opponent Assumption. That game is set to take place on Wednesday, September 20th at 3:00 p.m.
