This past weekend, the Amherst women’s tennis team returned to Williams College to compete in the 2017 ITA Regional Championships. After a three-day long battle, the Mammoths finished with strong performances in both the singles and doubles matches. The team ended the tournament with an 8-6 record in singles play and 5-3 in doubles. Amherst traveled to the Regional Championship with seven of its varsity athletes Friday afternoon.

Starting the tournament strong in singles, Camille Smukler ’20 continued her successful start of a season by advancing to the singles finals before falling to No. 1 seed Eudice Chong (Wesleyan). Maddie Dewire ’20 claimed a thrilling first-round victory over Julia Keller of Tufts, 7-6(3), 6-2, before falling to Chong in the second round. Avery Wagman ’18 beat her first-round opponent before losing against Williams’ Juli Raventos, 6-2, 6-1, while Jen Chen ’20 also fell in the second round.

In doubles, dynamite duo Anya Ivenitsky ’20 and Wagman built upon their successes so far this season with a run to the semifinals. First, they beat Trinity’s Babunsky and Brogan 8-4, then they advanced to the quarterfinals after besting the third-seeded doubles team from Middlebury.

Ivenitsky and Wagman continued their winning streak, with an 8-2 victory against Brandeis’ Dehtrevish and Ross-Neergaard, which allowed them to advance to the semifinals. After a hard-fought match, the Amherst pairing fell against Wesleyan’s Chong and Yu, 8-3.

Amherst’s top doubles pairing of Vickie Ip ’18 and Kelsey Chen ’19 was the No. 5 seed in the tournament. They advanced past the first two rounds, besting Middlebury’s Boehm and Pradies 9-7 and MIT’s Das and Zhang 8-3. However, they unexpectedly lost 4-8 to Williams’ Raventos and Cancio, the second-seeded duo.

The team takes this weekend off before returning on Oct. 13 for the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT). The tournament will be hosted by Smith and Mount Holyoke, and it will be the Mammoths final competition of the fall.