FLUSHING, N.Y. - - Freshman Carmelle Vial reached the Quarterfinals as the Wilmington University women's tennis team competed in the 2022 ITA East Regional Championships this past weekend at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The ITA Regional Championships are a singles and doubles bracket style tournament. The Wildcats had two doubles teams and four singles players seeded heading into the Tournament.
The freshman from France advanced the furthest amongst the Wildcats, earning a bye by being seeded eighth overall and then going 3-1 overall in the singles bracket to reach the quarterfinals. Following her bye, Carmelle Vial came out and won her first match in the Round of 64 with a decisive 6-0 and 6-1 decision over Claudia Bahamon from the District of Columbia. She continued her straight sets victory in the Round of 32 with a win over Adelphi's Katarina Liedbeck, seeded 21st, 6-2 and 7-6 (7-5), setting up a match with the top overall seed Ebba Rosberg from UDC. Vial took down the former two-time CACC Player of the Year in a third-set superset, fending off six match points to win 6-3, 2-6, 12-10 to advance to the quarterfinals. Her run ended against No. 14 seed Sanne Selmer Gilje of Adelphi in the quarterfinals.
Four other Wildcats won a match in the singles competition, with No. 7 seeded Neus Ramos Moreno and No. 19 seeded Valentina Ivankovic reaching the Round of 32. Marley Trifunovic and Fenna Swaan each won their opening matches to advance into the main draw but fell in the Round of 64. Jess Purdy was the final Wildcat that earned a seeding for the tournament, capturing the No. 5 seed, but she fell in her opening matching in the Round of 64.
On the doubles courts, Neus Ramos Moreno and Jess Purdy went into the tournament as the No. 1 seed, earning a bye into the Round of 32. They started the tournament with a clean 8-0 victory over Assumption's Jessica Crosby and Elizabeth McGreer, but fell in the Round of 16, 6-1 and 6-4, to Franklin Pierce's duo of Maria Penalver Aguilo and Aynara Ferraz, seeded 14th.
Marley Trifunovic and Valentina Ivankovic won their match, 8-4, to advance to the Main Draw of the doubles, but fell in the Round of 32. Seeded No. 8, Larize Nel and Fenna Swaan earned a bye into the Main Draw, but dropped a close match, 9-7, in the round of 32 as well.
The Wildcats get back to dual matches this week as they play a pair of matches at the Delcastle Tennis Center. They will be the visitors against Goldey-Beacom on Wednesday, but then will face Dominican on Saturday in a home match.