Women's Tennis: Holt battles to top in regional tournament
By Joe Katuska, Senior Sports Consultant
In a dominating weekend performance, the women's tennis team showed that they are the best team in New England. Playing at the Omni ITA Regional Championship, held at Bowdoin College, the Jeffs placed three players in the semifinals of the singles bracket, one of whom won it all, and had the runner-up doubles team as well.

In the first round of the tournament, the Jeffs breezed, as Rachel Holt '05 took home a 6-0, 6-1 win, Tristan Hedrick '05 won 6-0, 6-2, and co-captain Paige Lawrence '03 won 6-4, 6-4, before bowing out in the second round.

Kristen Raverta '06, the Jeffs top seeded singles player, received a bye through the first round, and in the second round she led the Jeffs with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Holt and Hedrick also made their way through the second round. Holt, in what became a recurring trend, coasted through with a 6-1, 6-1 win. Hedrick had a bit tougher time, taking home a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 win.

In the quarterfinals, it was the same story, with all three Amherst players taking easy wins. This set up a semifinal match between Holt and Hedrick, Amherst's super sophomores.

Holt took one of the best matches of the tournament, winning a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 battle against her teammate. Raverta fell in the other semifinal to Cheryl Hickey of Coast Guard, 6-0, 6-3, failing to make it an All-Amherst final.

In the final, Holt fell in the first set, 4-6, but she battled back in the final two, winning 6-3, 6-4. In the doubles competition, Amherst's team of Lawrence and Raverta reached the finals, but was unable to make it a sweep of both the singles and doubles tournaments.

In the first two rounds, the tandem took home identical 8-4 victories, while in the semifinals they cruised to an 8-3 win. The final was a different story though, as a single break by the team of Mallory and Troy from Williams College led to a 9-7 loss for the Amherst side.

"We completely dominated the tournament; everyone played really well," said Holt. "Our performance set us up as the team to beat this fall."

This weekend, the Jeffs swing back into action with a trip back to Maine, where they will face Colby, Bowdoin and Bates Colleges over the weekend.

Issue 05, Submitted 2002-10-02 11:12:05