The No. 3 Blue Devils competed in their first tournament of 2012 at the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships this past weekend in Las Vegas, Nev. In three days of action, three doubles teams and five singles players faced off against some of the best players in the country.
“The number one reason we play in this tournament is to get matches,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “A lot of girls haven’t played competitively for two months. We’ve been practicing, but it’s an opportunity to see what [the players] have done over break.”
The doubles team of freshman Ester Goldfeld and junior Mary Clayton had the most success at UNLV. On Friday, the duo defeated UCLA’s McCall Jones and Carling Seguso 8-4 and ousted Southern California’s Valeria Pulido and Zoe Scandalis 8-5 the next day to advance to the semifinals. UCLA’s 23rd-ranked Pamela Montez and Courtney Dolehide were able to squeeze out a 9-8 victory on Sunday, though, and went on to win the championship.
In other doubles action, the team of sophomore Hanna Mar and freshman Annie Mulholland reached the quarterfinals before falling to Montez and Dolehide, 8-5. Although content with the tournament, Ashworth also noted that the doubles lineup would continue to change.
“We have to be able to find three good teams,” Ashworth said. “So we’re trying different combinations. We had a couple of girls that didn’t play in Las Vegas that we want to put back in the mix. They’re a key ingredient in any and all goals that we have set for the season. If we play good doubles we’ll definitely be in matches.”
Goldfeld also found success in singles, advancing to the consolation finals against Florida’s Caroline Hitimana. Goldfeld dropped the first set 6-2, but was able to come back and win the second set, 6-2. Hitimana overcame the rally and emerged victorious, winning the final set 1-0 (10-4).
“Overall it was a good weekend,” Ashworth said. “Results-wise we definitely had our share of wins, but we had some losses where we left games on the court. It’s a good learning experience, because when you play good teams you don’t get a lot of opportunities [to win].”
The team will return to action this Friday for their first dual match of the 2012 season to take on William and Mary.
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