Johnson Tennis Earns Key Wins at ITA Regional

The Johnson University Royals men's and women's tennis teams traveled to Macon, Ga., this past weekend to compete in the Southeastern ITA Regional Championship, where the top NAIA players from 14 different schools came together for one of the most competitive tournaments of the fall.

For the Royals women's team, success came on the doubles courts. The duo of Marina Lasneaux and Maria Gracia Ponce, along with the team of Berkley Clark and Averie Stalnaker, each advanced out of the opening round with strong wins to reach the round of 16.

Clark and Stalnaker then pulled off one of the highlights of the tournament, defeating a seeded University of the Cumberlands team by a score of 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.  The pair would eventually fall to the No. 3 overall seed the following day, but their historic finish solidified them among the top tandems in the region.

Head Coach Seth Hale praised his team's performance and effort throughout the weekend:

"The ITAs are always incredibly tough competition with the best schools in the region all coming together, but I really thought we had some good performances over the weekend. Berks and Averie advanced to the final eight for the first time in school history while Marina, Maria, Lenni, and Mane all scored big wins before losing some tough battles. Our team as a whole also really showed out by supporting each other, especially during Mane's third set tie-break. As fun as these kinds of tournaments are, I'm really pumped to get into a little team competition to wrap up our fall season."

The Royals women's team will return to action in a scrimmage against Maryville College on October 10, before both the men's and women's squads host IU Southeast on October 11 to close out the fall season.