QUINCY, Ill. – Western Illinois women's tennis impressively built upon its play at this weekend's Quincy Tournament (Sept. 17-18). The freshmen pairing of Paige Grice and Ashley Jacobson finished first in the doubles bracket, while Grice and Maria Rybka were victorious in their respective singles brackets.
"It was a solid performance by the team," said head tennis coach Shawn Hyden. "We came in beat up physically, but performed extremely well. It's always good in tournament tennis when you get to the late rounds of the tournament and both players competing in a championship match have the same name on the front of their jerseys. We did that a few times this weekend."
Doubles
Day one of the doubles half of the tournament showcased dominance by the Leathernecks. Grice and Jacobson cruised through the top half of the bracket with a 6-0 quarterfinal win and a 6-1 win in the semifinals, shooting them straight to Saturday's championship. On the other half of the bracket, Lucky Kancherla and Rybka had similar success. A first round 6-2 victory was followed by a 6-1 in the second round, cementing that Saturday's championship bout would be all Purple and Gold.
When a championship consists of four players wearing the same name on the front of their jerseys, you can never have a loser. In Saturday's doubles finals, the younger Leatherneck pairing of Grice and Jacobson proved victorious with a 6-1 decision over their teammates.
Singles
Singles play began Friday (Sep. 17) afternoon with Leatherneck players participating in three separate brackets. All four Leathernecks moved onto the semifinals quite easily, besting their opponents in straight sets.
Rybka cruised her way to a championship after beating St. Francis' Grace Monahan 6-0,6-2 in the semifinals and St. Francis' Yashleen Keterpal 6-2,6-3 in the championship. Grice and Kancherla punched their tickets to the final with 6-2, 6-2 wins. The duo faced off for the second all-Leatherneck finals of the weekend. After a hard fought battle, Grice came out on top, 6-1, 6-4.
Jacobson made it to the finals with a 6-0, 6-2 sweep of Kiana Sikich, but fell in the finals. Jacobson took the first set, 3-6, before her opponent forced a third set. Jacobson wouldn't go down without a fight, giving it all she had before losing 10-6 in set three.
