Posted by Nelli Martirosyan - Wed, Oct. 3, 2012 - [Women's Tennis]
After the three-day-long 2012 U.S. Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Championships at Brenau University ended Sunday, Sept. 30, five players from Auburn University-Montgomery will head to the national championship tournament in Mobile, Ala., Oct.11-14.
The winners were Tiffany Williams (women's singles), Jade Curtis and Morgane
Zowczak (women's doubles), Nicolas Pinones-Haltenhoff (men's singles and
doubles) and Tim Hewitt (men's doubles).
Among the 39 participating women, Brenau's No. 2-seeded Dominika
Jasova narrowly missed her trip to the USTA/ITA National Championship by
falling in the final to AUM's No. 6-seeded Tiffany William in a tough two-set
match, 7-5, 7-6 (8).
The Warhawk doubles team of Zowczak and Curtis dominated the women's finals in
two sets, 6-4, 6-0, beating Xavier University's Brion Flowers and Kourtney
Howell. The Xavier team advanced to the finals after a close 8-6 match against
the tough Brenau team of Eline Nagels and Stephanie Moniz.
In an interesting twist, the men's singles final concluded the
championships on Sunday afternoon when AUM No.1-seeded Pinones-Haltenhoff took
on No.3-seeded Hewitt and came away with a two-set win, 6-3, 6-4. Then,
Pinones-Haltenhoff and Hewitt teamed up to dominate the doubles final 6-3, 6-1
against another Warhawk team of Zinelabidine Jouini and Othmane Lalami.
This is the first time Brenau hosted the USTA/ITA Regional Championship. Head
Tennis Coach Andre Ferreira said he hopes it will not be the last.
"It was a lot of fun to host the event at Brenau and in
Gainesville," he said. "Thanks to the help of so many people, including
Assistant Coach John Davis, as well as our Brenau athletic department,
administration and the Gainesville community, we put together an exciting
tournament. Bringing an event of this caliber to our region, which is
home to so many tennis enthusiasts, is absolutely fantastic. I am
sure the spectators were impressed by the level of tennis on both the
men's and women's sides. It is great for Brenau tennis because it creates
awareness in the community, which hopefully will generate more interest in NAIA
college tennis in the future."