Michigan
ITA All-American Qualifying (Day 1)
Tatsuno Wins Two Matches at ITA/All-American Qualifying
10/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Oct. 6, 2009
Site: Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Riviera Tennis Club)
Event: Riviera/ITA-American Qualifying (Day One)
Scoring: Non-scoring
Next U-M event: Wednesday, Oct. 7 -- at Riviera/ITA-American Qualifying (Day Two)
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- On the first day of qualifying action at the Riviera ITA/All-American Championships today (Tuesday, Oct. 6), junior Rika Tatsuno (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) of the University of Michigan women's tennis team won her first two matches, advancing in the qualifying draw.
Tatsuno, ranked No. 74, won her first match of the day against William & Mary's Ragina Acharya, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. In the second match of the day, Tatsuno hung tough against No. 111 Megan Alexander of TCU, bouncing back from a first-set loss to come away with a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 win.
Michigan's 32nd-ranked pair of Tatsuno and junior Whitney Taney (Edina, Minn./Edina) fell to the No. 1 seeded and ninth-ranked duo of Karen Nijssen and Kristi Boxx of Mississippi, 8-5, this morning in doubles action. Michigan's other duo of senior Tania Mahtani (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) and freshman Mimi Nguyen (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan), ranked No. 50, fell to the No. 30 pairing of Cal Poly's Amy Markhoff and Suzie Matzenauer, 9-7.
Tatsuno will square at off at 12:45 PT tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 7) against Southern Cal's Danielle Lao, who won both her matches today in straight sets. If Tatsuno wins, she will qualify for the singles main draw at the prestigious event. Both doubles teams will also be back in action tomorrow in consolation matches.
N O T E S
• Tania Mahtani competed in doubles qualifying for the second consecutive year. Last season, she paired with Chisako Sugiyama, finishing with a 1-1 record. The pair defeated Georgia's Cameron Ellis and Naoko Ueshima (8-6) in the first round before falling 8-6 to Ashley Joelson and Yasmin Schnack of UCLA.
• Mimi Nguyen, Whitney Taney and Rika Tatsuno were all competing for the first time in their collegiate careers at the ITA/All-American Championships qualifying.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head coach Ronni Bernstein
On Rika Tatsuno's play in the second match... "Rika had a really tough first set. The girl was basically stepping up and really controlling the match. In the second set, Rika changed it up and started stepping up in the court. She decided in the second set that she was going to step it up and fire up. She started to get the ball up on the girl. She fought it out today and did a good job of fighting the whole time and playing really well."
Contact: Sarah VanMetre (734) 763-4423
