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Five Still Alive for Women’s Tennis at ITA All-American 10/8/2003 Freshman Fish will compete in main-draw singles, while two doubles teams also remain. Pacific Palisades, Calif. — Freshman Amanda Fish of the Vanderbilt women’s tennis team will be in action on Thursday, Oct. 9, in the main draw of the 2003 Women’s ITA All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Fish earned a wild card into the tournament’s qualifying round after being named the ITA Summer Circuit Player of the Year and tallied three big wins to advance to the prestigious main draw. The Scituate, Mass., native did not drop a set in qualifying action, while defeating two ranked opponents. She saw her toughest competition in the first round, beating seventh-seeded and 35th-ranked Courtney Nagle of Oregon, 6-4, 6-2. In the second round, Fish defeated Maria Brito of Clemson, 6-3, 6-0, before taking out No. 82 Lauren Perl of San Diego, 6-1, 6-1, in the qualifying round. Fish has drawn seventh-seeded and ninth-ranked Alexis Gordon of Florida in Thursday’s round of 32. Junior Audra Falk’s run through the tournament was ended Wednesday in the qualifying round. The 91st-ranked player in the nation, Falk had begun as the top seed in the pre-qualifying tournament and won five straight matches, including victories over No. 55 Anca Dimitrescu of Florida State and No. 40 Anda Perianu of Oklahoma. Falk won the first set of her qualifying match against 34th-ranked Megan Bradley of Miami (Fla.), but could not hold on and eventually fell, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. Vanderbilt also has a pair of doubles teams alive in the qualifying round. Seniors Kelly Schmandt and Aleke Tsoubanos are only one win away from the main draw after defeating No. 22 Carter and Sumantri of Washington and No. 49 Havlicek and Lynch of California. They are scheduled to face Tulane’s Kuhn and Smekodub on Wednesday evening. Tsoubanos, along with 2003 graduate Sarah Riske, is one-half of the defending doubles champions. Falk and fellow-junior Annie Menees advanced through pre-qualifying before defeating Cizova and Novakova of UT-Arlington on Tuesday. The pair is scheduled to play Kruse and Venter of Middle Tennessee Wednesday evening with a chance to advance to the qualifying round.
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