Ray Advances to Qualifying Round

The sophomore leads the charge for Vanderbilt to start All-Americans, secures ticket to next round

CARY, N.C. — The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team saw sophomore Valeria Ray win a third consecutive singles match at the ITA All-American Championships, moving her into Monday’s qualifying round. 

Ray grabbed her first victory 6-2, 6-3 against Penn’s Maya Urata on Saturday. In the next round on Sunday, she defeated Gianna Pielet of North Texas, 6-1, 6-2. Ray then took on Iowa State’s Anna Supapitch Kuearum for her second singles match of the day, the final of the prequalifying round. She outlasted her Cyclone counterpart in a tiebreaker second set to win the match and advance, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

Multiple Dores picked up wins over the weekend but did not make it past the prequalifying round. Senior Amy Stevens opened with a 7-6 (0), 6-1 victory over Megan Heuser of Illinois before falling to Texas’ Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo 7-6 (3), 6-0. Freshman Sophia Webster notched her first collegiate victory in a comeback over Yu-Chin Tsai of TCU, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4. She was defeated by Colorado’s Mila Stanojevic 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in the next round. Junior Sonya Macavei suffered a 7-6 (1), 6-3 loss in the opening prequalifying round to Ellie Blackford of Michigan State.

Ray resumes singles play at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow against Florida State’s Maria Juliana Parra Romero. Ray and junior Bridget Stammel, ranked No. 64 together in the ITA preseason rankings, will take the court tomorrow in the doubles qualifying round; they face Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee of Florida at 5:00 p.m. ET. No. 29-ranked Webster and senior Célia-Belle Mohr open their doubles qualifying play as well, taking on Virginia Tech’s Semra Aksu and Ozlem Uslu at 3:00 p.m. ET.

The updated tournament page is available online.