Columbia
Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
Women's Tennis Wraps-Up Play at Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
10/3/2014 12:49:00 PM | Women's Tennis
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Four members of the Columbia women's tennis team traveled to the West Coast to take on some of the top players in the nation over the past week, but in the end the Lions came up short and their run ended at the 2014 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships yesterday.
Tina Jiang got things started for Columbia in the pre-qualifying round on Saturday, Sept. 27. The sophomore, a 9-16 seed and the 102nd-ranked player in the ITA, met Notre Dame's Monica Robinson in the opening round at the Sunset Rec Center. The Bridgewater, New Jersey, native could not brush past Robinson's racquet, however, and Jiang's All-American singles journey came to an end by a score of 6-4, 6-2.
After two days off, players in Columbia Blue took the court in the qualifying rounds. The 41st-ranked tandem of Kanika Vaidya and Rima Asatrian found themselves on the other side of the net of Saska Gavriloska and Rachel Pierson of Texas A&M. A back-and-forth battle ensued, but the Aggie's ended up on top, 6-4, 3-6, 10-3. The Lions' junior/first-year partnership competed in the consolation bracket, but fell to Quinn Gleason and Monica Robinson of Notre Dame, 6-2, 6-2.
Vaidya posted the Lions most impressive showing at the championships in the singles qualifying draw. The 85th-ranked singles player swept North Carolina's Kate Vialle, 6-0, 6-0, before downing Stanford's Ellen Tsay, who ranks 49th in the nation, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. Just one win away from earning a bid into the main draw, Vaidya's winning ways were stopped by the 50th ranked Sydney Campbell of Vanderbilt, 6-3, 6-1.
The Lions were represented in the doubles main draw by Jiang and senior Crystal Leung. The 19th-ranked pair went point-for-point with the 44th-ranked duo in DePaul's of Patricia Fargas and Ana Vladutu, but it was the Blue Demons' team that came away with the 7-6(5), 7-5 victory.
The quartet has made its way back to the East Coast and wasted no time getting into competition as the four Lions joined the rest of the team in Princeton, New Jersey at the Princeton Invitational.
