The University of Redlands women's tennis team enjoyed the opportunity to see 12 singles players and six doubles duos in action at the 2015 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Small College West Regional Championships throughout the weekend in Claremont.
Headlining the team's success, freshman Catherine Allen (Seattle, WA) and senior Natalie Etchegaray (Placentia, CA) each garnered a spot in the quarterfinals of the main singles draw, before teaming up for the first time to earn a semifinal doubles showing as well.
Seeded ninth in the tournament, Allen opened the competition with 6-3, 6-1 win over Lauren Livingston of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, before rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback victory against Emily Kuo from Pomona-Pitzer Colleges. She earned her spot in the quarterfinals by taking down seventh-seeded Shivani Doraiswami, also a Sagehen, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Etchegaray picked up right where she left off her All-America season in 2014 by taking her second-seeding to the quarterfinals. She stepped up to a first-round challenge by posting a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback over Pomona-Pitzer's Emily Chen. Etchegaray came out on top in the next round by scores of 6-3, 6-0 to cruise by CMS' Jessie Cruz, before winning another three-setter to move onto the quarterfinals. She defeated Lucy Jiang of Pomona-Pitzer in a hard-fought, 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-2 showing.
Furthermore, Redlands gained first-round wins from freshmen Abby Kent (Berkeley, CA), Sarah Seeman (Port Washington, WA), and Elizabeth Johnson (Portland, OR). Freshman Kate Dolan (St. Louis, MO) rebounded from a first-round singles loss to make it all the way to the finals of the consolation draw.
Seeded fourth, Allen and Etchegaray earned a spot in the semifinals of the main doubles draw after posting impressive wins along the way. The duo knocked off Savannah Goode and Areli Martinez of the University of La Verne and Marie Fleming and Mallory Roth of Pomona-Pitzer in a pair of 8-0 performances. The newly-formed tandem also defeated teammates Johnson and senior Lauren Villanueva (El Segundo, CA) by a score of 8-3. Johnson and Villanueva advanced to the quarterfinals by collecting an 8-6 win over Pomona-Pitzer's Maddie Gordon and Jiang, before nabbing a 9-8(5) triumph against the fifth-seeded duo, Gabrielle Etchegaray and Meagan Zamilpa, from Whittier College.
Redlands looks forward to opening the spring season on Friday, February 5, by hosting Linfield College (OR) on Verdieck Courts at 2 p.m.