ORLANDO, FL. -- The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Tennis team had three individuals and one doubles team in competition in day one of the NCAA Individual Tournament that saw wins from Angie Zhou and Nina Ye in rounds one and two and a three-set loss from Maria Lyven in round one of singles. The doubles team of Ye and Lyven also competed and fell in their opening round match at the USTA National Campus.
The Sagehens had two of their three singles players advance to the Round of 16 of the NCAA Singles competition and both Ye and Zhou advanced out into tomorrow's Quarterfinals. Ye and Zhou have already earned All-American Honors from their ITA Performances, but now also earn All-American Honors for making it to the Elite 8 of the Singles Bracket.
Round One
Angie Zhou def. Claire Coleman 6-0, 6-0
Angie Zhou faced off against Claire Coleman of Mary Washington and continued her relentless pace of play. Zhou wasted no time getting the 6-0 win in set one and followed up with another 6-0 win in set two to increase her game win-streak to 26 games.
Nina Ye def. Jackie Bukzin 6-2, 6-0)
Nina Ye also earned a victory in her round one matchup against the No. 2 seeded Jackie Bukzin of Amherst College. Ye battled with Bukzin early but found her form to dominate in the second half of the first set for a 6-2 win. Ye carried that momentum into set two and came away with a clean 6-0 sweep to earn her round one win.
Erica Ekstrand def. Maria Lyven 6-1, 0-6, 6-3
Maria Lyven faced a battle in her match against Erica Ekstrand of Williams College. Lyven fell behind early with a 1-6 loss but then found her form in set two with a clean 6-0 win. During the third set Ekstrand started to take over late as she won the final two games of the set to take a 6-3 win over Lyven.
Round of 16
Angie Zhou def. Suzuka Nishino 6-0, 6-0
Zhou faced off against Suzuka Nishino of UT-Dallas in the Round of 16 of the Singles Bracket. Zhou continued her insanely impressive streak of games won to 36 with her 6-0, 6-0 win of Nishino. Zhou dominated her second match of the day with a quick 6-0 win in set one. Zhou fell behind for a few games and faced two 40-15 deficits but managed to win both of those to continue her undefeated game streak in the NCAA Tournament.
Nina Ye def. Saah Yang 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, 6-4.
Ye took on Sarah Yang of Carnegie Mellon in the Round of 16 for her second match of the day and initially got out to a good start in set one after she controlled the set for the majority of the time without trailing until the very end. Yang was able to match Ye on games and went on to win a tiebreaker 7-5 to take set one. After dropping the first set, Ye powered her way through set two to go up 5-0. Yang managed to get one game off Ye but Nina walked into a third set with a 6-1 win in set two.
Ye stayed ahead of Yang during the third set and took a 4-2 lead. Ye lost the next game but held to go up 5-3 and broke Yang for the win in set three to advance to the Quarterfinals.
Doubles: Ana Christina Perez & Christina Watson def. Nina Ye & Maria Lyven 6-2, 6-3
The Sagehen doubles team ended the day with a loss in their opening round to the Emory team of Ana Christina Perez and Christina Watson 6-2, 6-3. The Sagehens started out behind in the opening set of the best of three doubles and tried to claw back late but ultimately dropped the first set 6-2. Pomona-Pitzer had similar luck in set two of their doubles with the Emory squad getting a small lead early and after a short-lived Sagehen run, the Eagles went on to close out the Sagehens 6-3 to take both doubles sets.
Up Next: Ye and Zhou will go on to the NCAA Quarterfinals where Ye will face off against Sarah Pertsemlidis of MIT and Zhou will face Josephine Libby of Rochester tomorrow at 10:00 AM EDT.
