Penshorn and Quiroz Play Well at ITA Cup

ROME, Ga. – The St. Mary's Women's Tennis doubles tandem of senior Ashley Penshorn and Kyndall Quiroz finished the prestigious ITA Cup with a 2-1 record, while Penshorn was 1-2 in singles play.
 
Due to inclement weather in the area throughout the three days, the remainder of the matches on the docket were not played after the main draw finished.
 
"Overall, Ashley and Kyndall played better every round," Director of Tennis Bill Macom said. "I'm very happy with their performances."
 
Penshorn dropped her first match to fourth-seeded Eleonora Liga from Azusa Pacific 6-1, 6-2. In the second match, she won the first set against Claudia Borbon Roca from Saint Leo, 6-2, but was unable to sustain the momentum, dropping the next two sets 6-4, 6-3.
 
"Against (Roca) Ashley played some amazing singles points and that match could easily have gone her way with a few more executed volleys," Macom stated.
 
Penshorn was involved in a tough battle in the first set against Drury's Nastasia Jedrychowski. Tied at 2-2, five of the next six games went to deuce at least once, but Penshorn held at love to make it 6-6 and won the tiebreaker, 7-3. Penshorn then seemed to take it up a gear in the second set, not losing a single point in the first three games for the 3-0 advantage. Leading 5-0, she broke at love for the 6-0 win.
 
"Ashley took over her singles match against Drury in the first set tiebreaker and ran off about 16 consecutive points heading into the second set," continued Macom.
 
On the doubles court, Penshorn and Quiroz won their first round in straight sets over Aynara Ferraz and Maria Penalver from Franklin Pierce, 6-4, 7-5. They battled tough against top-seeded Fatima Bizhukova and Natalie Espinal from Nova Southeastern, falling 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
 
"They had their chances against the #1 seed in doubles, but the Nova girls came up with some clutch shots before we could push them to a tiebreaker,"said Macom.
 
Against Vasileia Griva and Taylor Barrett, Penshorn and Quiroz won the first four games and got another late break after several deuces for the 6-3 first set win. The pair dropped set two 7-5 but came back to win 10-5 in the international doubles tiebreaker.
 
"Against Grand Valley they dealt very well with a little adversity and some rhythm interruptions to dominate the match tiebreaker," Macom concluded. "From my perspective after watching a lot of matches this week, we look a lot closer to the top teams in Division II than in years past."
 
The ITA Cup concludes the fall portion of the schedule for the tennis teams. The women begin the spring season on Feb. 4 at Schreiner.