SAN DIEGO – The UC Santa Barbara Women's Tennis team had an impressive showing in the ITA Southwest Regional Championships this past weekend. Amelia Honer made it to the semifinal round of the singles bracket and also earned a spot in the doubles championship match with her partner Kira Reuter.
SINGLES COMPETITION
Honer entered the singles bracket as the No. 4 overall seed as the fourth seed Honer earned a first-round bye in the round of 128. In the next four rounds of the tournament, she would earn straight-set victories over all of her opponents. She defeated Mariia Nikitash from Cal State Fullerton 6-0, 6-0 before earning a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer from UCLA. The next two rounds were more of the same as Honer defeated Carlota Molina of Loyola Marymount 6-2, 6-0 earning a spot in the quarterfinal round.
In the quarterfinal stage Honer earned another straight-set victory over her opponent from Pepperdine. In the semifinal match Honer would lose in three sets. After falling 7-6 (4) in the opening set, she rebounding with a 6-3 win in set two. Her run towards the Championship Match would end after a 6-1 loss in the third set.
Each Gaucho earned at least one win in singles competition. Camille Kiss earned a first-round win over Lauren Friedman from the University of Arizona winning 7-5 and 6-1. In the round of 64 Kiss fell to Santa Strombacha from Grand Canyon in three sets. She picked up another win over Ahmani Guichard from UCLA in an extra match on Saturday.
Three other Gauchos picked up a win in the round of 128 as Lucy Lu defeated her opponent in three sets, Kira Reuter won in straight sets to advance and Tyra Richardson also won to move on to the round of 64. Unfortunately for the Gauchos all would end their tournament in the round of 64 as Lu, Reuter and Richardson all fell in the ensuing round.
Carla Pacot dropped her first-round matchup but picked up two wins in extra matches on Saturday and Sunday. Pacot earned wins over Katelyn Vu of UC San Diego and Mariia Nikitash of Cal State Fullerton.
DOUBLES COMPETITION
Amelia Honer and Kira Reuter made a historic run in doubles competition making it all the way to the championship match. As the second seed in the field, the duo got an opening-round bye and started their tournament in the round of 32. A competitive opening match resulted in a Gaucho victory as they took down Ramstedt/Cook from Long Beach State 8-6. The Gauchos won their next match against Redelijk/Campana from Pepperdine in a tiebreaker 8-7 (6).
In the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the tournament, the Gaucho duo made quick work of their competition winning 8-5 in the quarterfinal and 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals to advance to the championship match. In the semifinal round, the Gauchos took down the No. 28-ranked doubles partnership in Naomi Cheong and Snow Han from USC. The duo eventually dropped their championship matchup to the top-ranked doubles partnership in the country. Honer and Reuter fell 6-4 and 7-5 in a historic tournament run.
The doubles partnership of Lucy Lu and Camille Kiss opened up with a win over UC Irvine's Haily Hunynh and Larissa Teramura. In the round of 32, the UC Santa Barbara partnership dropped their match against the no. 28-ranked doubles duo in Snow Han and Naomi Cheong. Their tournament would end there.
UP NEXT
The UC Santa Barbara Women's Tennis team will be back in action in two weeks as they compete in The Dennis Rizza Classic hosted by USC. The tournament is set to begin on Friday, Nov. 3 and conclude on Sunday, Nov. 5.
