James, Emery Pace Eagles At ITA’s

Biola Men’s and Women’s Tennis competed at the ITA West Regionals this week, playing in Azusa and at the Biola Tennis Center.

October 05, 2019

By: Brandon Taylor, Assistant Sports Information Director

2019 ITA West Region Draws

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The newly updated Biola Tennis Center saw its first official competition this week with the Men's Draw of the 2019 ITA West Regional Championships presented by Oracle.

Both Biola's men's and women's tennis teams competed in the tournament over the end of the week, with the women traveling to Citrus College and Azusa Pacific and the men starting their play at the BTC before joining their teammates in Azusa.

After familiarizing himself to the new courts in an exhibition with former French Open Champion Michael Chang, senior Derek James had a great start to the ITA in singles and doubles. He won all four matches he played at Biola, advancing to the third round in singles and in doubles with his partner Edwyn Ramos.

James bounced back decisively after dropping the first set in his opening singles match, taking the second set 6-4 against Holy Names' Alfonso De Simon and dominating the super-breaker 10-2. He won in straights a few hours later and concluded his victory with a 6-0 bagel against Azusa Pacific's Cole Rassner to advance to a meeting with the Regions' No. 8 Neil Tengbumroong on Friday.

James' run ended in that third round by a score of 6-2, 6-1 in singles.

Logan Blair and Andres Meneses also earned singles victories in the first round at the Biola Tennis Center. Blair took his match by a score of 7-6(4), 6-3 over Nicholas Lee of the APU while Meneses came out on top of a superbreaker (10-4) in his first round against UC San Diego's Zach Emert after Meneses evened the match with a 6-3 score in the second set.

The duo of Blair and Meneses also did well in the doubles draw and advanced alongside James/Ramos to Friday's third round at APU. They won a tight match in their second round, advancing 8-7 with a 7-5 score in the tiebreaker while James and Ramos won their first doubles fixture by that same score.

Head Coach David Goodman sent six singles players and two doubles pair to APU on Thursday to compete in the women's side of the Regional. Sophomore Ines Diaz won her 10 a.m. match via tiebreaker in the singles draw, while freshman Colbeyshae Emery rattled off two straight-set wins to advance to Friday's third round against Sonoma State's Sasha Turchuk. Emery then handled Turchuck in straights too, with 4 and 3 scores, and pushed the Region No. 2 Petra Ivanovic to 6-5 in the second set of the quarterfinals before losing out of the tournament.

Emery also moved onto the second round in doubles with partner Lauren Lee before losing to a Sonoma State duo.

Following the weekend off, both Biola tennis teams will return to the Biola Tennis Center to prepare for the team-play season that begins in the Spring.

Print Friendly Version

Sponsors