Sarah Hamner continues to re-write the South Carolina women’s tennis history books.
Sunday, she’ll compete for an ITA National Championship.
Hamner, a freshman, became the first player in South Carolina women’s tennis history to reach the All-American singles main draw final. She bested Pepperdine’s Taisiya Pachkaleva 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Saturday in the 2021 ITA Women’s All-American Championships semifinal at the LTP Tennis Club Mt. Pleasant.
Prior to Hamner’s historic run, no Gamecock competitor had reached the quarterfinals of the main draw in singles.
Iowa’s Alexa Noel will look to make her own history on Sunday.
Noel, the No. 8 seed and No. 12-ranked player, confirmed her spot in the championship match with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 victory over USC’s Eryn Cayetano. She’ll look to earn the first individual ITA National Championship for the Hawkeyes program on Sunday.
Doubles
Old Dominion’s Tatsiana Sasnouskaya and Yuliia Starodubtseva’s magical run through the doubles draw continued on Saturday. The pair clinched its spot in Sunday’s championship match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Pepperdine’s Victoria Flores and Janice Tjen in the semifinals.
Wake Forest’s Anna Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth are the first doubles team in program history to advance to the All-American final. The Demon Deacons duo bested North Carolina State’s Jaeda Daniel and Alana Smith 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Consolation
In the consolation singles final, Flores of Pepperdine faces Victoria Hu of Princeton. Flores outlasted Furman’s Julia Adams 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 in the semifinals. Hu also needed three sets to win her semifinal contest over Pepperdine’s Shiori Fukuda 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
An all-SEC matchup highlighted the women’s doubles consolation final. Ena Babic and Taylor Bridges of LSU faced Auburn’s Georgie Axon and Adeline Flach in the final. Babic and Bridges emerged victorious, winning the 10-point tiebreaker in the third set 10-7 to clinch the consolation championship.
Ena Babic and Taylor Bridges of LSU won a pair of matches in consolation doubles on Friday, advancing into the final. Pepperdine’s Fukuda and Pachkaleva turned back Tennessee in the quarterfinals and will face Auburn’s Georgie Axon and Adeline Flach in the semifinals.
For updates to the schedule and to view all of the draws, visit the ITA Women’s All-American Championships by LTP tournament page. Live scoring is available, courtesy of Tennis Ticker. You can follow along with the action here.
