Oct. 18, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue women's tennis team had a perfect start to the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional on Thursday. Purdue, and Claudia Escribens, went a combined 4-0 with two wins apiece in doubles and singles.
Escribens and Krisztina Kapitany started the morning off as the No. 2 seed in the doubles qualifier. The freshmen duo played its first match at 9 a.m. and knocked off the East Tennessee State team of Antonia Kolovou and Larn McShane, 8-2. The Boilermaker tandem then took down the Vanderbilt team of Megan Gornet and Maggie Leavell, 8-4, to advance to the main draw of doubles. Escribens and Kapitany join three other Purdue doubles teams in the main draw.
After the two morning doubles matches, Escribens had an afternoon singles qualifying singles match. Escribens faced Andrea Wolf and Xavier at 2:30. The Purdue freshman started slow and trailed 5-2 in the first set. Escribens got her game together and rallied back to tie the match at six and force a tiebreak. There, the Pittsburgh native hung on to win, 8-6, to take the first set. In the second, Escribens played much more consistent and cruised to a 6-2 win.
After the win, Escribens turned around and faced the No. 3 seed in the qualifying round, Ashleigh Witte of Cincinnati. Again, Escribens needed to rally in the first set, but she did and forced a tiebreak. The freshman took the tiebreak, 7-4, to win the opening set. In second, Escribens was again dominant and advanced to the main draw with a 6-3 victory.
Escribens and Kapitany will face Kally Alkire and Alex Brinker of Xavier in the first round of the doubles main draw at 9:15 a.m ET. Escribens' singles match had not yet been determined at publication time, but will be posted later on in the updated draws on this page.
Match updates will be posted throughout the day on Friday, as well as every day of the tournament, on Purdue Tennis' Twitter @PurdueTennis. Draws and scores will also be posted here. For updates from the Ohio Valley Region and other regionals, check Twitter by searching the hashtag #USTAITARegionals.