Bercovici Makes Run to Round of 16 in Top Singles Flight

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Amanda Bercovici (Hackensack, N.J./Bergen Tech) reached the round of 16 in the championship draw and four other Goucher players won at least one singles match this weekend at the 2013 USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships.

Bercovici, Goucher's only representative in the tournament's top singles flight, opened with a convincing 6-0, 6-0 victory over Alison Henry from Randolph and followed that up with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 triumph over Abbey Hamstra from Carngie Mellon. She was, however, prevented from making it to the quarterfinals by Amanda Austi from Johns Hopkins, who instead advanced with a 6-1, 6-1 win.

Kirsten Cianci (Bolton, Conn./Bolton) represented the Gophers in the third singles flight. She bowed in the opening round to Marielle McIntyre from Washington (Md.) 6-1, 6-1, and topped Allie Reifsnyder from Sweet Briar, 8-3, in the first round of consolations before an 8-1 loss to Megan Phillips from Juniata knocked her out.

In the first round of the fourth singles flight, Emily Ruff (Easton, Md./Easton) defeated Danni Yaron from Muhlenberg 6-2, 6-4, but Alice Goldstein-Plesser (Durham, N.C./Durham School of the Arts) suffered a 6-0, 6-1 setback to Anna Kankanala from Johns Hopkins. Ruff was eliminated by Kendra Tetrick from Grove City, 8-5; Goldstein-Plesser recorded an 8-1 win over Gina Rutledge from Sweet Briar before falling to Melissa Tomlin, 8-5, in the consolation bracket.

Hanora Barron (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) and Sarah Callander (South Westbrook, Vt./Woodstock Union) both dropped their opening-round matches in the sixth singles flight. Following her 6-0, 6-1 loss to Leah White from Grove City, Barron posted an 8-6 win over Stephanie Harnden from Penn State-Harrisburg and then lost 8-1 to Mistuki Koh from Juniata. A 6-4, 6-0 loss to Kaity Diskerud from Roanoke sent Callander to the consolation bracket where she was handed an 8-3 setback by Jenny Levenson from Muhlenbrg.

The three doubles teams that Goucher entered combined to win only one match. That was an 8-3 victory by Ruff and Goldstein-Plesser over Levenson and Ashley Ludwig from Muhlenberg in the third flight consolation quarterfinals.