It can be easy to discount the fall slate of competition for the Washington University women’s tennis team. They generally play no team matches, and this year, the players saw official action just once: this past weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Regional in Oberlin, Ohio. This one tournament, however, can be vitally important, as it goes a long way to establishing individual and team rankings for the spring season, and provides an opportunity to qualify for the ITA Oracle Cup next month. Senior Grace Deering and freshman Ally Persky took full advantage of that opportunity, running through the doubles field to take home the regional crown.

Deering and Persky, the second seed in the doubles field, started the tournament off with two convincing wins. In the opening round, they dispatched Joy Li and Morgan Wagers of Wooster College 8-1, and they followed up with a resounding 8-0 victory over Lark Foote and Anna Asfour of Calvin College.

From there, things got a little interesting for the pair in their first-ever competition as a team. In the third round, Deering and Persky came up against Laura Gutierrez and Catherine Xu of Wash. U.’s oldest UAA rival, the University of Chicago. While the Maroons’ pair forced the two Bears to drop a few more sets than they had in the previous two rounds, Derring and Persky still managed to march on to the next stage of the bracket with a fairly comfortable 8-5 victory.

With their conference rivals behind them, the pair rolled through to the final, fending off challenges from teams from Case Western Reserve University and Kenyon College along the way. By the time they reached the finals, the Bears’ team had already had a stroke of good fortune on the other side of the bracket. As the No. 2 seed, Deering and Persky probably expected to play the No. 1seed in the final, Marjorie Antohi and Daryn Ellison from U. Chicago. Antohi and Ellison, however, stumbled in the quarterfinal against an unseeded Case Western pairing of Nithya Kanagasegar and Madeleine Paolucci. Instead of the first seed, the other half of the final ended being the No. 4 team, Kenyon’s Erika Oku and Diana Aboubakare.

This made Deering and Persky slight favorites in their first-ever final as a pair, though both players had ample qualifications on their resume. Deering is a veteran player, with three full years on the team and over a hundred wins behind her. While for Persky, the final may have only been her sixth doubles match in college, she was not without experience in big time doubles play. She competed in the state doubles final three times in high school, capturing the crown once.

The final proved to be the pair’s closest match of the tournament. After a narrow 6-4 first set, neither pair could find an edge, and the second set went to a tie-break. Deering and Persky prevailed, preventing a third set and taking home the regional crown 6-4 7-6.

The regional title qualifies the duo as one of eight doubles teams that will compete in the ITA Fall National Championships next month in Rome, Fla. Aside from a trip to the Sunshine State to play against some of the best tennis players in Division III, the championship also gives the pair a significant accolade. With their win, Deering and Persky are awarded the status of All-American as a doubles team.

Persky, however, was not the only freshman to have some success in the Bears’ first matches of college. The all-freshman pair of Grace Hederick and Ashley Lessen also made some noise in their section of the bracket. Hederick and Lessen pulled off three victories, including an impressive upset victory over the No. 7-seeded team from Hope college, before falling to the Kenyon pairing of Oku and Aboubakare. Elsewhere in doubles, junior Lisa Chionis and Sanjna Tripathy had a successful trip to Oberlin, advancing to the round of 16 before being eliminated by the Case pairing that would go on to upset the No. 1-seeded Chicago team.

In singles play, the Bears were led by Deering and Lessen, who blazed through the bracket into the semifinals. Both players also did so by beating a few higher seeds along the way. Deering faced off against a familiar foe, Kenyon’s Aboubakare, who was seeded No. 4 in singles. Deering prevailed in a three set marathon, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Lessen downed the No. 7 seed, Amanda Bandrowski 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

Hopes of an all-Wash. U. final were dashed, however, when both Deering and Lessen lost to opponents from Chicago in the semifinal, with Deering falling to Claire Handa and Lessen losing to Marjorie Antohi.

Deering and Persky will now spend the coming weeks preparing for their upcoming tournament in Florida. For the rest of the team, things will slow down for the winter, and the focus for the remainder of the fall will be on the start of indoor tennis next semester and the long four months until the team’s first action against Coe College Feb. 23.