CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Led by a pair of seniors, the Navy women's tennis team closed out its four days of ITA Atlantic Regional Championship competition on Sunday afternoon at the Virginia Tennis Complex in Charlottesville, Va., stopped by a top-5 pairing in the doubles round-of-16.
 
With the senior quartet of Emily Tannenbaum, Sylvia Eklund, Parvathi Shanker and captain Kate Lee joined by sophomore Olivia Fermo and freshman Grace Li, the Midshipmen saw four players competing in the singles qualifying draw, with Eklund advancing out to join Tannenbaum in the main draw. As Tannenbaum played her way into the singles round-of-16 for the second-straight year, she also partnered with Fermo to reach the doubles round-of-16 and earn a matchup with the preseason No. 3 doubles pairing.
 
As regional action started with the qualifying singles bracket on Thursday, Eklund paved her path to the main draw by taking down Morgan State's Aleksandra Evdokimova, 6-3, 6-2, and then beating GW's Karen Verduzco in a 7-5, 7-5 victory, while Shanker nearly followed her by defeating Longwood's Oriana Izarra, 6-3, 6-3, in her opener but fell in a 6-3, 6-4 match to Vaida Matuseviciute of GW in the second qualifying round. Also competing in the qualifying bracket, Lee retired from her opening match against Morgan State's Marta Serra due to an injury (1-6, 6-4, 4-1) while Li was upended by Ema Kovacevic of Maryland in a three-set affair, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3. In qualifier backdraws, Li rebounded with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Loyola's Jessica Bodewes while Fermo was edged out by Liberty's Maria Turchetto, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.
 
In the first round of the main singles draw, Tannenbaum handled Virginia Tech's Mila Mulready to the tune of a 6-3, 6-1 victory, while Eklund dropped her round-of-64 match by a 6-2, 6-0 to the Cavaliers' Zara Larke. Tannenbaum then went on for a 6-2, 6-2 win over Longwood's Karina Rizvanova but was stopped short of the quarterfinals via a tough 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 loss to Virginia's Martina Genis Salas.
 
Doubles action had Li and Shanker pair up in the round-of-64, but the new duo fell to Izarra and her Longwood teammate Feline Eijkelenburg, 8-6. With Tannenbaum and Fermo, the pairing surged past Richmond's Sofia Barbulescu and Elizabeth Novak, 8-3, in the first round and then posted an 8-2 win over West Virginia's Mille Haagensen and Laura Villanueva Morill. One win away from the quarterfinals, the Navy duo could not complete the upset, suffering an 8-5 loss to the No. 3-ranked pairing nationally in Virginia's Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky.
 
Head Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"I feel good about the progress we have made over the course of this fall, and the ladies did a great job of representing our team this past weekend. Sylvia worked hard all summer, so it is good to see her work paying off. She played two tough matches to make it into the main draw, while Parvathi battled but just fell a little short in her quest for the main. Much credit also goes to Emily for her singles play and also her performance with Liv in doubles. Em battled to the round-of-16 in both singles and doubles, marking a first for our program. I know this leaves her with a hunger for even more. Both her singles and the doubles matches with Liv were a matter of execution in a few critical points and moments in each match. Grace and Kate also are to be commended for their play, battling hard in each of their matches in Charlottesville."
 
Up Next
Navy will send players to the ITA Conference Masters Qualifier, set for Oct. 25-27 in West Point, N.Y.