By Molly McSweyn |
After six years of finishing below .500, the women’s tennis team has started off their fall tournament season with a powerful showing. Led by junior Maja Mladenovic and sophomore Lucia Butkovska, the team has their sights set on a strong spring season.
Members of the team have played at the ITA All American Championships, the WSU Invitational and the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships.
The fall tournament season sets the stage for the spring WCC season in which the Pilots are hoping to make an impressive showing. The team concluded last season with a 6-10 overall record.
“Fall has been a good indication that we could be very competitive in conference and the two players nationally ranked [Mladenovic and Butkovska] sets us up for some opportunities,” Head Coach Susie Campbell-Gross said.
The team made a big debut in California at the ITA All American Championships in late September.
The Championships feature some of the most promising and top-ranked players in the nation.
It was only the second time in UP women’s tennis history that the Pilots had been invited to the event. The last time was in 2001 when Courtney Perkins represented UP at the event.
The two players invited were Mladenovic and Butkovska, who are integral to the team. Mladenovic was named to the All-West Coast Conference First Team in singles last season. Butkovska did not play last year, because she was not eligible due to her professional ranking.
“I want to help the team, because I couldn’t help them last year. And I think the team is stronger, and we have good players, so we could be successful,” Butkovska said.
Campbell-Gross said Mladenovic and Butkovksa will be the cornerstone of the team in coming years.
“They are both tremendous representatives of the University of Portland and the tennis program,” Campbell-Gross said.
At the Championships event, Mladenovic and Butkovska posted first-round wins. They were then knocked out of the second round, but their initial wins showcased their ability to play against some of the highest ranked tennis players in the nation.
The two athletes continued to show their dominance at the WSU Invitational.
Mladenovic and Butkovska each finished 3-0 in the top flight singles draw at the Invitational. They decided to not play out the final against each other.
Juniors Emily Gould and Saroop Dhatt also posted wins for the Pilots as doubles.
The Pilots continued to display their strength at the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Palo Alto, California, which finished up the first weekend of fall break.
Butkovska advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles draw, while Mladenovic defeated the number 30 ranked player in the nation.
Senior Sophie van den Aarssen and Dhatt also won singles games.
The women’s performances reinforced their promising showing during this year’s fall season.
The team is looking towards their final tournament this weekend at the Matador Invitational at Cal State Northridge.
“The more success you have, the more serious the program is and the more committed the players are and we are definitely moving in that direction,” Campbell-Gross said. “We've always been able to compete reasonably. But now to win and to be beating the teams that we struggled with in the past, I mean, things are changing in a good way.”
Molly McSweyn is a sports reporter for The Beacon. You can reach her at mcsweyn18@up.edu.
