WEST POINT, N.Y. – Iuliia Bryzgalova and Marija Curnic captured the ITA Northeast Regional doubles crown for the University of Pennsylvania women's tennis team on Tuesday afternoon, capping a week of unbeaten play, rattling off six wins to clinch a berth in November's Oracle ITA Fall National Championships.
The pair's title comes on the heels of an impressive run in doubles at All-Americans when the group won four matches, including toppling No. 11 Alter/Rice from Arkansas. They entered this week 7-2 together, before ticking off six more wins to capture the title, the first Quaker duo to win since Sol Eskenazi and Sonya Latycheva in 2012.
Penn's top doubles duo remained relatively unchallenged for much of its tournament run, including a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win over Yale in the semifinals. In the finals, though, against another Bulldog pair, Bryzgalova and Curnic fought from behind to win 1-6, 6-1, 13-11. In the third set tiebreak, Penn trailed 9-6 before turning away, in total, four match points to earn the regional title.
Bryzgalova, because she was already locked in to ITA Fall Nationals in singles after reaching the quarterfinals of the Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American Championships, didn't compete in the regional singles and focused only on doubles. Last year, she reached the final as a freshman. During her sophomore season, she boasts a 13-2 record.
In singles, freshmen Amanda Chan and Sonia Tartakovsky both reached the second round before bowing out of the tournament, along with Ashley Zhu. Chan and Zhu also won a match together in doubles before losing to Princeton, an eventual quarterfinals group.
Results
Doubles:
Round of 64: Chan/Zhu def. Bradley/Nella (Quinnipiac) 8-3
Round of 64: Irani/Lopez (BC) def. Tartakovsky/Xie 8-7
Round of 64: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Williams/Wolf (Colgate) 8-0
Round of 32: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Chratian/Smilansky (URI) 8-2
Round of 16: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Kovacevic/Bocchi (UMass) 8-5
Quarterfinal: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Yaloz/Kim (BU) 8-3
Semifinal: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Kung/Lou (Yale) 6-1, 6-3
Final: Bryzgalova/Curnic def. Dunleavy/Shrivastava (Yale) 1-6, 6-1, 13-11
Singles: Qualifying Draw
First Round: Ashley Huang (Cornell) def. Gibson Thomas 6-2, 6-2
Singles: Main Draw
First Round: Sonia Tartakovsky – BYE
First Round: Ashley Zhu def. Chidimma Okpara (Dartmouth) 6-4, 6-3
First Round: Amanda Chan def. Alena Kubanova (FDU) 6-3, 7-5
First Round: Shelly Yaloz (BU) def. Marija Curnic 7-6 (4), 6-0
Second Round: Devon Jack (Brown) def. Tartakovsky 6-2, 6-0
Second Round: Grace Joyce (Princeton) def. Zhu 6-4, 6-1
Second Round: Janja Kovacevic (UMass) def. Chan 6-1, 6-1
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