FULL SINGLES RESULTS | FULL DOUBLES RESULTS
FLUSHING, N.Y. – For the first time in program history the New Haven women's tennis team has not one, not two, but three regional champions following the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association event held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. With their victories, seniors Karim Carreras (Asuncion, Paraguay/Colegio Bautista de Villa Morra) and Risako Umekuni (Saitama, Japan/Shumei Eiko) and junior Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil) will advance to the ITA Cup to be held later this fall.
Formerly known as the Small College Nationals, the ITA Cup has a history dating back to 1986. It is the only singles and doubles national championship event for the Division II and NAIA levels. In 2023, more than 8,000 players participated in 60 regional tournaments to gain entry into the ITA Cup field. The 2024 ITA Cup will take place October 10-13 at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga.
The first to clinch a bid to the national tournament was the doubles pair of Carreras and Ferrarini who opened up the final day of action on Monday with a 9-7 win over Katarina Liedbeck and Roisin Boyd from Adelphi University. The Adelphi pair opened up the four-day tournament as the top seeded doubles team, while Carreras and Ferrarini were ranked third ahead of the tournament.
Both doubles squads earned a first-round bye with Adelphi advancing into the quarterfinals with wins over pairs from Assumption University and Chestnut Hill College. The New Haven duo opened up its tournament on Friday with an 8-5 win over the STAC pair of Mar Caneves and Ellise Semmartin. In the round of 16, Carreras and Ferrarini would have to go through another Adelphi pair, this time around it was the 10th seeded duo of Zuzanna Witkowska and Caterina Federici with the Chargers pair earning an 8-6 victory.
The quarterfinal and semifinal victories for the Chargers both came on 8-2 decisions in back-to-back matches on Sunday morning. In the quarterfinal round, the Chargers defeated the seventh seeded pair of Desire Parn and Polina Zelentsova from the University of District of Columbia, while the semifinal win came over the SNHU pair of Justina Haver Chang and Lois Tsui.
After the Panthers top pair advanced to the finals with wins over the eighth and 13th seeded doubles pairs, the Chargers earned the first ever ITA Regional title with the tight battle on Monday morning.
In singles action, Umekuni would meet her own teammate, Carreras, in the title match as the duo entered the finals knowing regional singles title would come home to West Haven. The singles field was made up of 83 total participants with both Umekuni and Carreras earning first round byes. For
Carreras, who entered as the 11 seed, would advance to the semifinal rounds with wins over players from Franklin Pierce, Queens, STAC and UDC. In the semifinal round, she would meet the 14th seeded Anaya Brons of Saint Thomas Aquinas, forcing a tie breaker to take the victory (7-5, 2-6, 10-4).
After her opening round bye, Umekuni, who entered as the 18th seed, would advance with first a first round win over Franklin Pierce's Zoe Asterio Correa and a second round win over STAC's Courtney Fyvie. In the round of 16, Umekuni would force a tie break to extend her tournament, defeating Queens' Maja Makal 5-7. 6-4, 12-10, advancing to face Chestnut Hill's Alison Isaac whom she defeated 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semifinal.
In the semifinal round it was a familiar foe for the Chargers senior as she would take on her own teammate in rookie Victoria Togores (Canary Islands, Spain/Colegio Hispano Ingles) who enters as the 24th overall seed in the singles tournament. Umekuni took down her teammate with scores of 6-3, 7-6 (7-0).
In the Championship match against Carreras, Umekuni would drop the opening set to her teammate 6-1 before leading the fellow Charger in the second set before Carreras was forced to retire due to injury.
The trio will have a quick turnaround heading into their next contest as they will head back to Long Island on Wednesday, returning to Northeast-10 Conference play with a date against the Adelphi Panthers. First serve in the conference battle is schedule for 1:00 p.m.
