Bluefield State women's tennis meets goal of reaching regionals

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
·3 min read

May 11—CHARLESTON — The Bluefield State women's tennis season came to an end this weekend, but not before the Big Blue women's netters made history.

The Bluefield State women traveled to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships, having qualified for the first time ever. Sunday afternoon the Big Blue took on West Virginia State University on the Schoenbaum Tennis Courts at the University of Charleston.

"I'm just really proud of how hard they worked to acomplish the goal they set out at the beginning of the year and even as the season was winding down," said BSC women's basketball coach Ryan Bailey, who has been filling in to help tennis assistant coach Jim Macomber with the men's and women's teams this spring.

"We kind of knew it was going to be real close. It was a topic of conversation with the young ladies ... going out there every night to prove themselves so that when the NCAA regional did come around and the committee was looking at seeding those teams, they wanted to be in the top five.

The Big Blues women went into the Regional as the No. 5 seed.

The Big Blue were looking to redeem themselves against the No. 4 Yellow Jackets after a 6-1 loss on April 9. The team competed but ultimately succumbed to its higher-seeded opponent, 4-0.

"The weren't just happy to be there, either. They really competed hard [Sunday] at the regional," Bailey said.

Bluefield State got down early losing the doubles point. The Big Blue tried fighting back in the singles matches but couldn't find a way to defeat the Yellow Jackets. Juliana Jimenez dropped the number three position 6-1,6-1.

Paula Saez fell short in the number six position 6-2,6-2. Ghita Courdi fought hard but also fell short 6-4, 6-4. Shreya Chakrabarly won her first set 6-2, lost the second set 5-2 and Chakrabarly did not get a chance to finish due to the Yellow Jackets already having enough wins.

"Unfortunately, things just didn't work out," said Bailey. "Even the officials talked about the difference in their style of play and their aggressiveness, not only compared to years past but compared to how they started the season."

The Bluefield State men, advanced from the regional with a 4-0 win over Edinboro on Saturday and took a 4-3 win over Charleston for the South Region title.

NCAA Atlantic Region

Sunday May 9

WV State 4, Bluefield State 0

Doubles

1. Soloman/Malo (WVSU) def. Bonoth/Saez (BSC) 6-1

2. Wild/Moore (WVSU) def. Grurdi/Cabral (BSC) 6-2

3.Haidari/Kruhlova (WVSU) vs. Chakraburty/Jimenez (BSC) 5-3 DNF

Singles

1. Chakraburty (BSC) vs. Wild (WVSU): 6-2, 5-2 DNF

2. Soloman (WVSU) def. Grurdi (BSC): 6-4, 6-4

3. Malo (WVSU) def. Jimenez (BSC): 6-1, 6-1

4. Zanotti (BSC) vs. Kruhlova (WVSU): 3-6, 3-3 DNF

5. Cabral (BSC) vs. Haidari (WVSU): 6-2, 5-2 DNF

6. Moore (WVSU) def. Saez (BSC): 6-2, 6-2