Gian Octa, Lailaa Bashir and Inah Canetae built on strong starts to the season as the Tigers had a productive weekend
The Missouri tennis team finished their second event at the International Tennis Association Women’s Central Regional Championship from Oct. 9-14 at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee.
The team’s play was highlighted by a standout performance from Tiger freshman Gian Octa, who logged singles wins over Isabella Basson from the University of Tulsa on Thursday and Sati Aubakirova from Wichita State University on Friday. After advancing to the B-draw singles final, Octa fell short in a tiebreaker 10-8 against Deniz Turan from the University of Minnesota on Saturday. On the Tigers’ main-draw doubles second court, Octa finished 1-1 alongside graduate student transfer Lailaa Bashir.
Bashir had a strong showing after starting 1-1 in singles on Wednesday. She won each of her singles matches on Friday and Saturday with a score of 6-1, 6-2 over Simryn Jacob of the University of Kansas and 6-3, 6-4 against Aubakirova.
Senior Inah Canete went 2-1 on singles court one, winning matches against Pia Kranholdt from the University of Iowa on Thursday and Saniyah Singh from Tulsa on Saturday. Canete passed through the round of 32 on friday after Carolina Gomez Alons from the University of Arkansas withdrew due to injury, but fell to Maria Berlanga of Tulsa in the round of 16 later in the day, and played one doubles match with freshman Korina Rosso, losing 8-5 against Jasmine Adams and Kyoka Kubo from Kansas.
Sarah Hartel’s singles action started on Wednesday with a win in straight sets against Abigail Thurmer of Arkansas State University. Her success continued Thursday, sealing a 6-2, 6-4 win over Clara Whitaker from Wichita State. Hartel eventually lost on Friday to Loles Chova Carbo representing Arkansas State in a tiebreaker match. Hartel went down 6-1 in the first set before rallying to win the second set 7-6. Eventually, Hartel fell short in the final third set, with 12-10. Hartel lost another singles match 6-4, 6-4, against Sophia Pinto from the University of Minnesota on Saturday.
Roso lost her only singles match against Anet Koskel from the University of Arkansas 7-6, 6-4 on Wednesday.
At the end of the ITA championship, three different Tigers recorded at least one singles win and one doubles win. The team as a whole tallied a 9-6 record in singles and a 1-2 record in doubles matches.
Missouri sets their sights on the TCU Invite, which takes place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Edited by Dylan Heinrich | dheinrich@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com