The Bona Venture

Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Becky McKeown/The Bona Venture Manuela Marin-Salcedo reaches for a serve during practice.

The women's tennis team finished its fall season last weekend, after competing at the Women's Division I ITA East Regional Championships.

"We did pretty good," coach Michael Bates said. "It was good to gain some experience and get exposed to the higher level of tennis."

Junior Maria Barousse went to the finals in flight A in the Niagara Tournament and won a round in the ITA Regionals.

The women started off the fall season at the Cornell Fall Invitational. The only team member to move on to the second day of competition was sophomore Manuela Marin- Salcedo, who lost in day two of the Flight A singles.

The team faced a similar outcome at the Eastern Collegiate Invitational, where no member of the team advanced past the second day of competition.

In their one and only dual match of the fall season, the Bonnies defeated Mercyhurst, 5-2, as they swept the doubles and won four of the six singles matches.

In the first day of the regional championships, the Bonnies lost both doubles matches, as the freshman duo of Kathryn Kvas and Amanda Pallikunnel fell to Kelsey Raynor and Erin McCarthy from Marist, 8-1, and the team of Barousse and freshman Kalia Garcia-Roja fell to Princeton's Monica Chow and Rachel Saiontz, 8-1. Barousse was the only Bonnie to make it to the second day, but she fell to Buffalo's Denise Harijanto in straight sets.

"I think last weekend was a good chance for some of the freshmen to get exposed to some of the best players in our region and see how hard they work, and that's how hard we have to work to keep up," Bates said.

"We all played good," Barousse said. "I feel that the freshmen are improving really fast, I see them playing better every match."

The Bonnies do not play again until the spring season starts in late January.

"We really got to focus on our conditioning and on our doubles, in the off-season. We aren't very comfortable with doubles right now," Bates said. "If we can do that, we will do pretty well."

Barousse said, "I think we have a great season ahead of us. We have a strong team, and I think we are going to do so much better than my previous years at Bona's."

The Bonnies' first match of the spring season is Jan. 30, as they host Albany.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools