The Women’s Tennis team competed in Bloomington, Ind. in the Hoosier Classic hosted by the University of Indiana this weekend. ACU’s competition included ranked Division I teams such as Georgia, (No. 8) Notre Dame, (No. 20) and Kansas State. (No. 46)
The women’s team remained a constant threat to its competition even though ACU was the only DII team represented in a tournament made up entirely of DI athletes.
Sophomore Micah Hermsdorf was immediately successful in Saturday’s tournament, ultimately reaching flight #3 singles. Hermsdorf beat Notre Dame’s Julie Sabacinski early, and following her first round success, claimed a semifinals victory again Indiana’s Kayla Fujimoto 6-1, 6-2. After reaching the finals, she was defeated by Georgia’s Lauren Herring 6-4, 7-5, unable to achieve her second consecutive singles title.
“It was a good experience getting to play against bigger schools,” Hermsdorf said. “Being in an all DI tournament the competition is tough, but we held our own against the stiff competition.”
Last spring’s No. 8 DII singles player Julia Mongin certainly held her own, beginning the tournament in the first singles flight. After losing her first match to Kansas State’s Petra Niedermaverova (No. 35) 6-1, 6-0, Mongin defeated Evngeniva Vertesheva (All-Big Ten twice selected and ranked No. 80) in a 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (6) battle.
Following Mongin’s victory over Vertesheva, she lost 6-2, 6-1 to Notre Dame’s Jennifer Kellner, (No. 87) falling to the back draw of singles flight #1.
Hermsdorf and Mongin also competed as double partners in the tournament.
“Julia and I played together once before last year, and we have a lot of fun together,” Hermsdorf said. “We remained really relaxed in some very tough matches.”
After losing their opening match to Chupa and Klyczek of Indiana 8-4 and falling to the back draw, they came back with an 8-1 victory over Manningham and Sabacinski of Notre Dame.
“We played against tough opponents, and it not only made us stronger, but allowed Micah and I to develop better tennis skills,” Mongin said. “We’re fairly close to these universities in skill level, and I really enjoyed getting to play against them and with Micah.”
The men and women’s tennis teams will return later this week at the ITA South Central Regional tournament in Springfield, Missouri.
