Draws/Results: Saint Mary's Invitational
The Santa Clara women's tennis team got off to a strong start in the Saint Mary's Invitational.
During Friday's opening-day action at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex, the Broncos posted a perfect 4-0 doubles mark and were victorious in three of five singles matches.
The three-day tournament features players from Cal, Cal Poly, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Pacific, Portland, Sacramento State, San Francisco, San Jose State, Stanford, UC Davis
"We had a really good day, we're happy about it," said head coach Ben Cabell. "We made the semifinals with both doubles teams."
In the round of 16 in the A doubles bracket, Nabila Farah and Daniella Silva won 8-4 against Emily Gould and Maja Mladenovic of Portland before knocking off Stanford's Lindsey Kostas and Kimberly Lee, 8-5, in the quarterfinals.
"Silva and Farah had a great win in doubles over the team from Stanford and they're going to be the best team in the country, so that was a huge win," Cabell said.
The B doubles bracket had Chelby Cooke and Janet Liu teaming up to snag an 8-2 round of 16 victory vs. Gonzaga's Domonique Garley and Sissi Koehler. Cooke and Liu, seeded No. 2 in the bracket, moved into Saturday's semifinals with a convincing 8-2 victory against Justine Deleval and Kobayashi of San Jose State in the quarterfinals.
In round of 32 action in the A singles bracket, Silva dominated her match against Tatiana Grigoryan of Portland, winning 6-3, 6-0 and Cooke had a decisive 6-2, 6-2 victory against Cal Poly's Emily Gibben. Madison Clarke was not as fortunate in that bracket, losing to seventh-seeded Jamie Pawid of the host Gaels 6-3, 6-3.
in the opening round in the B singles bracket, Farah, seeded fifth, dispatched of Kamila Kecki of UC Davis 6-4, 6-2 but Liu fell to San Jose State's Miyo Kobayashi 6-3, 6-1.
"I'm really proud of our team, this is a great, tough tournament, and I hope we keep it up tomorrow," Cabell said.
The doubles semifinals begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, followed by the singles round of 16 at 10:00 a.m. Championship matches are set for Sunday.