Salkin and Yoshino Win First Round at USTA-ITA Regional Championships
Geneva, NY -- For the second year in a row, the Elmira College women's tennis team produced an opening round win at the USTA-ITA Northeast Regional Championships, this year adding a main draw doubles victory to last year's singles main draw win.
After
Amy Schmidt '15 notched EC's first-ever main draw singles victory at the 2013 Championships, the doubles pairing of
Kimberly Salkin '18 and
Ayaka Yoshino '16 became the first Elmira duo to win a match in the doubles main draw, taking down Nazareth, 8-3, in the first round of this year's doubles tournament.
Both players played in the singles draw prior to beginning doubles play, with Salkin nearly following in Schmidt's footsteps with a first round, three-set victory. Salkin, who was going up against the 14th seeded player in the tournament in Casey Olsen from RPI, found herself behind in the match after dropping the first set 6-4. She showed her resiliency by bouncing back to take the second set 6-3 to force the deciding 10-point super tiebreaker, but Salkin would fall 10-7 in the super tiebreaker, eliminating her from the tournament. Yoshino drew the unfortunate assignment of going up against the fifth seeded player in St. Lawrence University's Elkie Vandenbeemt, falling in straight sets.
The duo showed no ill effects of their tough singles losses during their opening round match in doubles as they jumped on the Nazareth team early and often, leading to their historic 8-3 victory. The draw was not kind to the Soaring Eagles, however, as the number one seeded team from Vassar College awaited Salkin and Yoshino in the second round. The Elmira team had their chances to take control of the match, but Vassar proved why they were the number one seed, coming up with the shots they needed to maintain their distance and down the Soaring Eagles, 8-2.
Salkin and Yoshino will rejoin the rest of their teammates as EC prepares for a pair of crucial Empire 8 matches. The Purple and Gold square-off with Nazareth College on Saturday, October 4th, and then take on Stevens Tech on Sunday, October 5th. Both matches will be played at the Murray Athletic Center and are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.