Arizona women’s tennis kicked off its season last weekend at the Battle in the Bay Tournament in San Francisco.
Senior Lauren Marker and freshman Paris Corley dominated the tournament, claiming titles in the doubles match and a singles match when Marker defeated her doubles partner. Marker is currently ranked No. 37 in the country.
Marker and Corley beat duo Shanna Dos Santos and Anna Sokiran from the University of San Francisco, 8-1. Arizona only gave up seven points in three matches and scored 24.
“We both have very reliable serves, so at that point we just had to look for opportunities to break, and those obviously came.” Marker said. “I think for the next match we just need to work on communication and keep setting each other up at the net.”
Following the doubles victory, Marker set herself up to take the singles title as well. She brought it home after beating teammate Corley 6-2 and 6-3 in consecutive sets.
“I never had to play against a teammate before like that, so it was a little bit hard to prepare for it,” Marker said. “I just took it one match at a time, and I think I did a good job flipping the switch from playing with her in the doubles match to playing against her for the singles match.”
Junior Devin Chypyha also represented Arizona in the tournament, earning a victory against Isabella Von Ebbe from UC Davis. Chypyha dominated in straight sets, 6-1 and 6-3, becoming the singles runner-up.
“Devin had a little bit of a slow start to the tournament, but they all just really impressed me,” head coach Vicky Maes said. “The first tournament is always an event to see where people are at to start the year. … The balance of the unknown and the known is equal when you have five newcomers and five returning players.”
Corley defeated Emily Maxfield of USF in the quarterfinals along with her teammate, freshman Marie Van Aelst, who beat out USF’s Sokiran.
Next for Arizona is the Wildcat Invitational at the UA, beginning Friday.
“I feel like she needs more match play, and this invitational is an excellent opportunity for her to start two events back-to-back, especially when it’s at our home court,” Maes said about Chypyha.
Coach Maes is currently playing around with doubles pairs and determining who works well together and who does not click as well. While Maes said she hopes she can do this without the cost of any losses, she emphasized the importance of this experimentation is to see players implement what they are learning and working on into their match play.
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