Iowa State women’s tennis was able to make waves to start off their fall season, with the pairing of junior Stanislava Shulzhenko and sophomore Mari Paz Alberto Vilar winning the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic Championship on Sunday.
The second pairing of sophomore Julia Camblor and junior Ashlee Narker was also successful this weekend, earning third place in their respective draw.
The two pairings were split into different draws: the blue draw and the gray draw. Shulzhenko and Alberto Vilar were put in the blue draw while Camblor and Narker were put in the gray draw.
Both pairs were able to advance to round two without any significant problems, with the two pairs going undefeated in their first match.
Gray draw:
In the gray draw, Camblor and Narker defeated Jacksonville State players Angeles Rodriguez-Rizo and Sae Kaneko, in doubles 8-2. In singles, Camblor took care of Rodriguez-Rizo 7-5, 6-3, and Narker took care of Kaneko 7-5, 6-2.
Round two was where the two duos started to run into trouble. In the gray draw, Camblor and Narker fell, losing 4-8 in doubles to Georgia Tech players Taly Licht and Olivia Carneiro. Camblor lost to Licht in singles 3-6, 2-6 and Narker beat Carneiro 6-4, 7-5. This loss sends the pair to the third-place match.
In the third-place match in the gray draw, Camblor and Narker faced off against the pair of Natalie Outcalt from Auburn and Indi Patel from LSU.
The pair of Camblor and Narker proved to be too much for Outcalt and Patel in doubles, as they won the match 8-4.
In singles, Camblor wasn’t able to overcome Outcalt, losing 3-6, 5-7. Narker won her singles match against Patel 6-3, 6-1, clinching the pair’s third place in the blue bracket.
Blue draw:
In the blue draw, Shulzhenko and Alberto Vilar were also able to take care of business as they beat Mississippi State players Alessia Tagliente and Emma Cohen 8-7(3) in doubles.
Alberto Vilar beat Tagliente 6-4, 6-0. Her partner, Shulzhenko, beat Cohen 6-1, 6-3.
The other pair had a bit more success in their match in the blue draw. They beat the Auburn team of Ava Esposito and Alice Battesti 8-6 in doubles.
Alberto Vilar lost to Esposito in singles 6-3, 6-4, but Shulzhenko was able to take the match, winning 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) over Battesti to send them into round three.
In Alberto Vilar and Shulzhenko’s third round match, they needed to win against the other Georgia Tech duo that’s in play, Alejandra Cruz and Scarlett Nicholson, to be the champions of the blue draw and have a chance for the championship.
A tall task for the pair, as Cruz is ranked 54th in the country in singles and Nicholson is ranked 16th in the country in singles.
The Georgia Tech team came up firing in doubles, beating Alberto Vilar and Shulzhenko 8-3. Singles drew a different picture as Alberto Vilar lost the first set to Cruz 2-6, but came back in the next two sets, winning them both 6-4.
In Shulzhenko’s match, she lost out to Nicholson in the first set 2-6, then also rattled off two straight set wins, winning 7-6(6) and 7-6(2), winning Iowa State the blue draw and giving them a chance for the championship
The pair faced the University of Mississippi players Emily Welker and Riley Crowder in one 10-point doubles tiebreaker match to decide the tournament title.
Shulzhenko and Alberto Vilar proved too much for Welker and Crowder as they won the match 10-2, winning the pair the tournament championship title.
Clutch play helps out the blue draw
Clutch play seemed to be the story for the Cyclones as they were on their way to the championship title.
The pairing of Shulzhenko and Alberto Vilar ended up going to a tiebreaker in four different sets, with three of those sets being must-win, facing match losses that eliminated them from championship contention.
The most notable being in the third round with Shulzhenko going up against Nicholson, who is ranked 16th in the country in singles.
After falling behind in set count after a 2-6 loss, they forced two straight sets and went to a tiebreak, being able to scratch out a 7-6(6) win. Then doing it again in a 7-6(2) set win, winning the match and making them blue draw champions.
Efficiency is the name of the gray draw’s duo game
While in the blue draw, it seemed like they thrived on clutch, the gray draw seemed to be a different tale for their wins and losses.
None of the sets played by Camblor and Narker went to a tiebreaker. Along with this, none of the singles matches had more than two sets, meaning that this duo played the minimum amount of sets they could while also never needing a tiebreaker point to decide any of the sets.
Doubles are the key
This tournament features rounds where one doubles match is played first and two singles matches are played following it.
In the tournament results, of the 24 different doubles matches played, 19 winners of the doubles match won their round, leaving five different instances where the winner of the doubles match lost the two singles matches.
While the Cyclones did manage to come back from a doubles loss to win the round, it seems that strong doubles play put most teams in an advantageous position for the round, and winning those doubles matches is key for a team to succeed.
The Cyclones will return to tennis action Saturday for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships in Carry, North Carolina.
