ALLENDALE - The Saginaw Valley State University women's tennis team finished up play at the 2014 ITA Regional Tournament on Saturday, September 27th with some strong performances.

Izabella Ismailova, the tourney's #11 seed in the "A" Draw Singles, was in the round of 16 after a fantastic opening day of play.  She would run into the #3 seed, Tiffin's Caroline Nelhage, and fall by a score of 6-1, 6-0.

Lauren Sharp would reach the "B" Draw semifinals after claiming a marathon victory over Grand Valley's Kelly Trapp by a score of 7-6 (4), 0-6, 14-12.  Sharp would fall in the final four to another Laker, Courtney Lang, by a score of 6-4, 6-1.

Danielle Slonac fell to Lang in the quarterfinals of the draw, which prevented what would have been a match-up of Cardinals in the semifinal round.

In the backdraw, Shea Donahue claimed a third set tiebreaker over McKendree's #1 player (6-3, 5-7, 10-8) before falling to Ohio Dominican's Ana Pico by a 6-3, 6-1 count.

The doubles pairing of Mikayla Kazdan and Abigail Shonk played in the "B" Doubles backdraw and were defeated by Ohio Dominican by a score of 8-4.

"The goal of the ITA tournament was to compete against the best players in the region and gain more match experience," stated SVSU Head Coach Jenn Boehm.  "It was clear to me that, although we are a young team, we are very tough competitors.  We are gaining momentum and excitement for our upcoming team matches."

Those upcoming matches for the Cardinals include a trio of home matches this weekend against GLIAC foes from Ohio.  SVSU takes-on Ashland Friday at 1:00 pm and Walsh on Saturday for a 10:00 am match before rounding-out play for the weekend against Ohio Dominican on Sunday with another 10:00 am start.