Tennis Starts Hot at Day 1 of ITA Regionals

Thursday, October 19

Lawrence, Kan.

All Day

University of Missouri

ITA Central Regional

10/19/2017 5:51:00 PM | Tennis

ITA Central Regional Tournament Central

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Mizzou Tennis had an excellent opening round on the first day of the ITA Central Regional Championships Presented By Oracle. The Tigers won all three of their matches in the doubles bracket, and won five of their six singles matches in bracket play.

To start the morning, the 32nd-ranked duo of senior Amina Ismail (Maineville, Ohio) and freshman Marta Oliveira (Lisbon, Portugal) – seeded fourth among the 64 squads in the bracket – notched an 8-5 win over the Western Illinois team of Bravo & Lubbers. Sophomore Mackenzy Middlebrooks (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and freshman Ellie Wright (Gainesville, Fla.) beat UMKC's Johnson & Grechkina by that same score, and senior Clare Raley (Atlanta, Ga.) and sophomore Serena Nash (Bradford, England) won by the largest margin of the three pairs Thursday, beating Tupper & Link from SIUE, 8-3.

The Tigers were led in singles play by straight-set wins from Raley (over North Dakota's Jaylee Yasunaga), Wright (over Oklahoma's Simran Sethi) and Nash (over Minnesota's Cammy Frei). Ismail lived up to her No. 17 tournament seed with a three-set win over North Dakota's Elly Hartnett, while Oliveira earned her second win of the day over WIU's Bravo after the morning's doubles win.

HE SAID IT

"Overall, I thought the girls did a great job today," said Head Coach Colt Gaston. "We got off to a solid start in doubles winning all three matches in the morning session, and stayed hungry to get five more wins in singles. The girls are doing a better job of finishing down the stretch in close matches, and we'll need to continue to build on that tomorrow."

UP NEXT

The ITA Central Regional continues Friday with the Singles Round of 64 and Doubles Round of 32 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center and Sports Pavilion Lawrence. For all the latest on Mizzou Tennis, stay tuned to mutigers.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

ITA CENTRAL REGIONAL DAY ONE RESULTS

DOUBLES ROUND OF 64
#32 (4) Amina Ismail/Marta Oliveira (MIZ) def. Natalia Bravo/Courtney Lubbers (Western Illinois), 8-5
Mackenzy Middlebrooks/Ellie Wright (MIZ) def. Melinda Johnson/Yana Grechkina (UMKC), 8-5
Serena Nash/Clare Raley (MIZ) def. Lara Tupper/Ann-Christine Link (SIUE), 8-3

SINGLES ROUND OF 128
Michaela Henne (Creighton) def. Mackenzy Middlebrooks (MIZ), 7-5, 6-3
(17) Amina Ismail (MIZ) def. Elly Hartnett (North Dakota), 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
Marta Oliveira (MIZ) def. Natalie Bravo (Western Illinois), 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
Clare Raley (MIZ) def. Jaylee Yasunaga (North Dakota), 6-1, 6-1
Ellie Wright (MIZ) def. Simran Sethi (Oklahoma), 7-5, 6-4
Serena Nash (MIZ) def. Cammy Frei (Minnesota), 6-4, 6-4