SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara women's tennis team completed its run at the St. Mary's Invitational on Sun., Oct. 26 that took place in Moraga, Calif. over the weekend.
The Broncos combatted tumultuous rainy weather on Sat., Oct. 25 to complement the stiff competition and still came out with some significant wins.
"Overall, we had some good results," said head coach Ben Cabell. "There's still plenty to work on, but the team is making great progress as a whole."
Some of the highlights for Santa Clara on the singles side of the tournament included Chelby Cooke defeating Layla Sanders of Davis 1-6, 6-3, 1-0(2) and Nabila Farah taking down Anne Susdorf of Fresno State 6-0, 5-7, 1-0(7). Delphine Rouvillois – who earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament from her play at Stanford – put away wins against Emily Gibbens of Cal Poly 6-2, 6-4 and Grace Ysidora of Washington 6-1, 6-4 to push forward to the red quarterfinals before falling to Karla Popovic of California 6-0, 6-2.
The Broncos that fell in singles didn't go down without a fight; fourth-seeded Zeina El Tawil pushed a decisive third set in the white bracket, while Riley Morgan and Farah did the same twice each in the blue and red brackets respectively.
Along with their singles seedings, Rouvillois and El Tawil were seeded No. 4 in doubles together. The duo initially fell to the mixed pairing of Lin and Martino – from California and Davis – in the white doubles round of 16. But, the two demonstrated their resilience as they squared up against and proved too much for three consecutives pairs. Rouvillois and El Tawil took down Edwards and Polayes of Gonzaga 8-7(5) on Friday, then made quick work of Reed and Stone of Cal Poly on Sunday 8-3 and found themselves in the white consolation finals. Here they swatted away the competition of Pahz and Willett from neighboring San Jose State, 8-4.
"This weekend we found some combos we really like with our top two doubles teams," added Cabell. "We were really happy with how our duos did this weekend."
After earning a win at the prior tournament in their sole combined match of the fall season, Cooke and Farah teamed up again to find success this weekend. The junior-sophomore pairing beat second-seeded squad Flores and Mangi of Saint Mary's, 8-1, on Friday before overcoming Boncheva and Dean of Pacific 8-3 in Sunday round robin play.
The Broncos play next at the SJSU Hidden Dual in San Jose, Calif. starting on Nov. 7 through Nov. 9.
Friday Results of St. Mary's Invitational
Blue Singles – Round of 16
Andie Mouzes (SAC) def. Riley Morgan (SCU) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(1)
Blue Singles – Quarterfinal
Regina Suarez (PAC) def. Elaine Chesoni (SCU) 6-2, 6-3
Red Singles – Round of 32
Rana Sherif Ahmed (FS) def. Chelby Cooke (SCU) 6-4, 7-5
Elianne Douglas-Miron (UW) def. Nabila Farah (SCU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
#8 Delphine Rouvillois (SCU) def. Emily Gibbens (CP) 6-2, 6-4
White Singles – Round of 32
Abbie Pahz (SJ) def. #4 Zeina El Tawil (SCU) 6-1, 6-1
#8 Francis Dean (PAC) def. Danielle Zinn (SCU) 6-0, 6-0
Blue Doubles – Quarterfinal
Garcia/Yam (SB) def. Chesoni/Morgan (SCU) 8-3
Red Doubles – Round of 16
Cooke/Farah (SCU) def. #2 Flores/Mangi (SM) 8-1
Red Doubles – Quarterfinal
Cubukcu/Rey (SJ) def. Cooke/Farah (SCU) 8-2
White Doubles – Round of 16
Lin/Martino (DAV/CAL) def. #4 El Tawil/Rouvillois (SCU) 8-4
White Doubles – Consolation Quarterfinal
#4 El Tawil/Rouvillois (SCU) def. Edwards/Polayes (GON) 8-7(5)
Saturday Results of St. Mary's Invitational
Blue Singles – Round Robin
Ines Texeira (USF) def. Elaine Chesoni (SCU)
Red Singles – Consolation Round 1
Chelby Cooke (SCU) def. Layla Sanders (DAV) 1-6, 6-3, 1-0(2)
Nabila Farah (SCU) def. Anne Susdorf (FS) 6-0, 5-7, 1-0(7)
Red Singles – Round of 16
Delphine Rouvillois (SCU) def. Grace Ysidora (UW) 6-1, 6-4
Sunday Results of St. Mary's Invitational
Blue Singles – Consolation Quarterfinal
Leilani Tice (DAV) def. Riley Morgan (SCU) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0(8)
Blue Singles – Consolation Semifinal
Saskia Angerer (SAC) def. Elaine Chesoni (SCU) 6-4, 6-3
Red Singles – Quarterfinal
Karla Popovic (CAL) def. #8 Delphine Rouvillois (SCU) 6-0, 6-2
Red Singles – Consolation Quarterfinal
Gaelle Rey (SJ) def. Chelby Cooke (SCU) 6-1, 6-1
Natalie Da Silveira (SB) def. Nabila Farah (SCU) 4-6, 6-2, 1-0(5)
White Singles – Consolation Round 1
Hannah Stone (CP) def. #4 Zeina El Tawil (SCU) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(4)
Kamila Kecki (DAV) def. Danielle Zinn (SCU) 6-3, 6-2
Blue Doubles – Consolation Semifinal
Chesoni/Morgan (SCU) def. Meunier/Tice (DAV) 8-7(2)
Blue Doubles – Consolation Final
Kaur/McCloskey (USF) def. Chesoni/Morgan Wo (em)
Doubles – Round Robin 1
Cooke/Farah (SCU) def. Boncheva/Dean (PAC) 8-3
White Doubles – Consolation Semifinal
#4 El Tawil/Rouvillois (SCU) def. Reed/Stone (CP) 8-3
White Doubles – Consolation Final
#4 El Tawil/Rouvillois (SCU) def. Pahz/Willett (SJ) 8-4
Go Broncos! @scuwtennis
