By Brian Roe, Sports Writer
The Lady Wildcats upset Northern Arizona at the Aggie Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M. this weekend after dropping the first two of three mock dual matches. ACU, playing without number one player and ITA Regional champion sophomore Colleen Reynolds, was the only Division II team in the tournament.
Led by junior Rachel Taylor, who defeated Northern Arizona’s top player, the Lady Wildcats soundly beat Northern Arizona after opening the tournament with back-to-back losses to UTEP and host team New Mexico State.
Freshmen Allison Tetrick said the team played well over the weekend.
“We played with a lot of heart,” said Tetrick, who also won her match. “We played some close matches against tough competition. We may have lost several matches, but overall we played pretty well.”
The men’s team was also in action this weekend playing in individual flights at a tournament in Plano. The Wildcats were also missing two of their top players this weekend. Sophomore Casper Steen-camp was competing at the U.S. Futures tournament in Round Rock, and senior Trent Broach stayed in Abilene nursing an injured ankle.
None of the men won their flights and freshmen George Carstens said the team only played average in Plano.
“We didn’t play that great this weekend,” said Carstens, who lost in the second round. “We had a couple of players that played well and had some close matches but overall our performance was average.”
Although none of the players won individual flights, several played solid matches throughout the tournament.
Sophomore Clayton Morgan and freshmen Kevin Beedy each went to the semifinals in flight two singles. Sophomore Jason Ray lost in the finals of flight one consolation singles and freshmen William McDonald lost in the finals of flight four singles.
ITA Regional champions sophomore Casper Steencamp and sophomore Colleen Reynolds left Wednesday for Corpus Christi to compete for the ITA National championship.
The men and women will both finish the fall season at the Tyler College Invitational on Oct. 24-25 in Tyler.