BATON ROUGE, LA. – Jacksonville State's women's tennis squad had an historic weekend at LSU in the 2022 ITA Southern Regionals. The Gamecocks had two singles competitors advance to the Round of 16 for the first time in program history while one doubles team made a deep run in their main draw as well.
Freshman
Serafima Shastova had a phenomenal outing in the singles draw. The Stavropol, Russia, native was the invite's no. 16 seed and thus had a first-round bye. Shastova defeated opponents from UAB and Troy in two sets before falling to Alabama's Petra Sedlackova, the no. 2 overall seed, 7-6 (8), 1-6, 5-7.
Sophomore
Anna Syrova also made it to the Round of 16. The second-year Gamecock beat Alabama's Kasia Pitak in two sets and then scored a massive upset, downing no. 5 seed Anaelle Leclercq of Ole Miss, 6-1, 6-4. After surviving a three-set scare against UAB's Sydney Clarke, Jacksonville State's Ukrainian standout lost to LSU's Nikita Vishwase, the no. 15 seed, in the Round of 16.
JSU's freshman duo of
Irene Artigas and
Polina Ramenskaja made it to the Round of 16 in the women's doubles main draw as well. They defeated opponents from Samford and Southern Miss 8-4 and 8-5 respectively, then lost 8-1 against a doubles squad from Alabama to end their run in the bracket.
"Overall, this was a very positive weekend for both programs," Jacksonville State head coach
Mike Mucci said after the event. "The ladies made some historic runs and we fell just short of making the quarterfinals, having a match point with Serafima (Shastova) against the no. 2 seed who's ranked no. 54 in the country.
"What Anna and Serafima did was pretty incredible, and we also had a good run in doubles by two of our other freshmen," Mucci said. "This showed us what we are capable of."
Junior
Dariana Prato and sophomores
Romane Mosse,
Zuzana Pavelekova, and
Ella Tuomela also participated in the ITA Southern Regionals in Louisiana.
Doubles Results:
Qualifying Round-
Prato/Pavelekova def. Klinteby/Bachmann (ULM) 8-3
Syrova/Tyomela def. Katem/King (ULM) 8-2
Main Draw-
Round of 64-
Prato/Pavelekova def. Barendse/Kouchnareva (New Orleans) 8-4
Artigas/Ramenskaja def. Nanere/Jablonski (Samford) 8-4
Syrova/Tuomela and Mosse/Shastova fell to opponents from UAB, 8-2
Round of 32-
Artigas/Ramenskaja def. Das/Tardivel (Southern Miss) 8-5
Kareisova/Mize (Ole Miss) def. Prato/Pavelekova 8-4
Round of 16-
Sedlackova/Parkhomenko (Alabama) def. Artigas/Ramenskaja 8-1
Singles Results:
Qualifying Round-
Prato, Tuomela, and Artigas won a round of qualifying singles before falling in the second round
Main Draw-
Round of 128-
Syrova def. Pitak (Alabama) 6-4, 6-1
Round of 64-
Syrova def. (5) Leclercq (Ole Miss) 6-1, 6-4
(16) Shastova def. Ratkic (UAB) 7-5, 6-3
Round of 32-
Syrova def. Clarke (UAB) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
(16) Shastova def. Guirguis (Troy) 6-3, 6-3
Round of 16-
(15) Vishwase (LSU) def. Syrova 6-0, 6-0
(2) Sedlackova (Alabama) def. (16) Shastova 7-6 (8), 1-6, 7-5
