Despite rain cutting off the last day of the Washington University Invitational, the women’s tennis team had a very strong tournament, posting three finalists across the four divisions of play.

Freshman Kate Klein (A draw), freshman Paige Madora (B draw) and sophomore Luisa Errichetti (C draw) all won their first two matches. The Bears were poised for further success but were unable to play in the finals due to rain.

“I was staying consistent. I had to prevent [Giuliana Gonzalez of McKendree University] from hitting winners on me, so I tried to keep the ball deep,” Klein said.

Head coach Kelly Stahlhuth was surprised that the tournament could not ultimately be completed.

“It hasn’t happened in a long time…Usually we can go indoors, but it wasn’t going to work because of the court time in St. Louis,” Stahlhuth said. “We would have loved for Paige, Luisa and Kate to play.”

Many of the girls who were playing well were also disappointed that they could not finish what they started.

“It was frustrating,” Klein said. “I was bummed, especially because I know the girl I was going to play plays number 1 for SLU, and I wanted to see how I match up against her.”

Seniors Stacey Goebel and Grace Fox and sophomore Kristen George all advanced to the back draw finals in the B and D draws, but they, too, had their dominant performances cut short because of the rain.

“We’d like to finish,” junior Alex Cassady said. “My roommate [Fox] had a good match coming up…It’s disappointing.”

Even Stahlhuth expressed some frustration at the cancelation of the last day of play.

“Sometimes, the good wins don’t mean anything if you can’t finish it,” Stahlhuth said.

Although the Bears’ run was stunted by the weather, they were able to make use of home-court advantage for the first time this season. But the majority of the team diminished the significance of competing at home.

“I do like having teammates and people I know cheering me on. I think that does help a little bit,” Klein said. “But, I like to think that I can compete when I’m away just as well.”

The Bears put their prowess away from home to the test at the Wilson/ITA Central Regional Tournament in Greencastle, Ind., on Oct. 2-5.

“[Playing at home], you get more friends who come out, you get professors who come out…There is a comfort level,” Stahlhuth said. “But, we are kind of the road warriors too. If you put us anywhere there’s a court, we want to play well.”

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Tags: Kate Klein, Kelly Stahlhuth, Luisi Errichetti, Paige Madora

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Sports, Women's Tennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through this feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.