This past weekend, the Alabama women’s tennis team traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, for the 36th annual Debbie Southern Furman Fall Classic, a three-day tournament featuring some of the top programs in the nation.
Junior No. 46 Loudmilla Bencheikh shined during the event, going 2-1 in both singles and doubles play with her partner, senior Anne Marie Hiser. Two of her singles wins came against ranked opponents: She defeated No. 44 Casie Wooten of Wake Forest on Friday and No. 10 Millie Rajecki of North Carolina State on Saturday.
Friday
As play began on Friday, the Crimson Tide started off strong, taking five singles matches and three doubles. Freshman Priya Nelson earned her first collegiate win against Furman’s Macy Hitchcock, with a final score of 7-5, 6-1. In doubles play, graduate student Margaux Maquet and junior Petra Sedlackova took their first match together as a pair, defeating Audrey Spencer and Shelly Bereznyak of Ohio State with a final score of 8-5.
Saturday
The second day of the tournament was not quite as fruitful for the Crimson Tide, however. The program was only able to take two singles victories, with No. 46 Bencheikh and senior Anna Parkhomenko both winning their matches in three sets. Alabama performed well in doubles play, however, winning two out of three matches. Nelson had another career first, winning her first collegiate doubles match with partner Parkhomenko. The 20th-ranked duo of Bencheikh and Hiser also had a notable win over Georgia’s Aysegul Mert and Dasha Vidmanova with a score of 8-4.
Sunday
The Crimson Tide wrapped up the tournament by winning two of five singles matches on the final day. Hiser and junior Ansley Cheshire were able to take their matches against Clemson’s Cristina Mayorova and North Carolina State’s Chloe Henderson, respectively.
After a solid showing in Greenville, Alabama will look to build on its performance going into the ITA All-American Championships starting Sept. 30 in Cary, North Carolina.
