Sept. 26, 2011
Women’s tennis head coach Geoff Macdonald said he was pleased with his team’s performance at the Furman Classic this past weekend, having competed well against a group of highly-competitive teams in an elite tournament.
Seven of the eight teams represented at the tournament have been in the quarterfinals or better at the NCAAs in recent years.
In doubles play, Jackie Wu and Lauren Mira paired up to beat the preseason number one team in the country, Florida State, 8-3, while Chelsea Preeg and Ashleigh Antal defeated North Carolina 8-3 in the second flight.
“Chelsea Preeg and Ashleigh Antal played really well together,” said Macdonald. “Chelsea did a really good job of leading Ashleigh and Ashleigh kept good poise as a freshman in her first college tournament.”
Forced into two singles matches on Saturday due to rain, the women still performed well, with Wu, Mira and Preeg winning the majority of their matches.
“Jackie Wu lost in the third to a player that was top 20 in the country, and then beat a player 7-6 in the third whose top third in the country, so she’s playing at a very high level,” said Macdonald. “Cheslea Preeg got to the finals. She hasn’t played many matches, so it was a good experience to get some match toughness. Lauren Mira had a very good tournament, won two out of three, and beat a good player from North Carolina on the last day.”
And despite Nelly Radeva and Megan Gornet’s struggles in singles, Macdonald noted that it was a good experience for them, playing with such a strong tournament.
“I’m very pleased,” said Macdonald of the overall play. “We competed hard. Those are long days–we get there about 8:00 in the morning and leave about 6:00 at night. But it was a great first tournament.”