Courtesy of Chris Mitchell

Junior Theresa Petraskova delivers a forehand return during the USTA/ITA Division III Central Regional tournament on Friday. Sophomore Hanna Newstadt and Petraskova advanced to the quarterfinals of the doubles draw before falling in a hard fought 9-8 match to the top-seeded team from Denison University.

In the final event of its abbreviated early season, the Washington University women’s tennis team finished up the fall on a high note.

The Bears faced off with players from several different Division III schools and ended the weekend with four singles players in the final 16 and one doubles pairing in the final eight.

With the tournament being the Bears’ second and final event of the fall, it gave them a chance to build a possible foundation of their lineup when they resume training for their spring season in January.

“I think we did fine. I think we found some areas we can work on in doubles and some areas we need to keep working on in singles,” head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said. “Last year we had a decent tournament and a strong spring, so that’s what I expect now.”

Advancing from an original singles field of 128, Wash. U. saw a strong representation in the tournament’s later stages. Four players—junior Aarthi Kasilingam, senior Kate Klein, senior Paige Madara and freshman Jamie Silverberg—battled their way in the main singles bracket to the round of 16 before all bowing out in two sets.

The way the tournament was set up, draws were fairly random, meaning lower-ranking singles players on one team often ended up facing higher-ranking players on other teams.

Stahlhuth was pleased with her players’ efforts in those situations.

“Regionals are tricky because there are different levels,” she said. “Your No. 2 could end up playing the No. 5 from another team, and the No. 5 from another team can be pretty solid.”

In the consolation singles bracket, junior Betsy Edershile made it to the quarterfinals before dropping a three-set contest.

Courtesy of Chris Mitchell

Left: Freshman Aly Coran returns a shot in a first round doubles match against a team from Otterbein University. Coran and senior Kate Klein won the match 8-2 and advanced to the Round of 16 before falling. Right: Junior Betsy Edershile returns a serve in her doubles match on Friday against the ninth-seeded team from Lake Forest University. She and freshman partner Jamie Silverberg pulled off the upset, 8-3, and advanced to the Round of 16 before being eliminated.

In doubles, the pairing of sophomore Hanna Newstadt and junior Theresa Petraskova led the way for Wash. U. as it advanced to the quarterfinals before losing a close 9-8 match.

“We were really aggressive when we played, really trying to get to the net and put balls away,” Petraskova said about the pairing. “We just worked well together, both played well, were positive overall and had fun.”

The Bears also had two more pairings—one with Silverberg and Edershile, the other with Klein and freshman Aly Coran—that made their ways to the round of 16 before bowing out.

“We had three new combinations, and I liked what I saw,” Stahlhuth said. “I just think if we had three or four more weeks, those combos would’ve been a little stronger.”

The fall tennis season, which consisted of this tournament and the season-opening Imergoot Invitational held in mid-September, consists of lots of experimenting with different pairings and trying to get a feel for how things may look in the spring season. With the team only having a couple of weeks of practice before its tournaments, it’s tough to know what to expect.

“We didn’t get to spend too much time in practice getting to work with our partner, and even the pairings we had in this tournament are different from the ones we had before [at Imergoot],” Petraskova said. “We’re constantly trying to see what pairings work best, and we spent more time trying to put combinations together than actually working with our partner and working on actually playing well with them.”

With that in mind, the Bears felt good about how things looked out on the court against the best in their region, and it gave them a glimpse of what they can expect when the season starts back up in spring.

“The margin between teams is much smaller, and there’s more teams that have got some pretty strong depth,” Stahlhuth said. “There are no easy matches next year, and we’re going to have to be ready for them.”

The Bears will have no more organized matches or tournaments until Feb. 23 when they play DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.