Racers Conclude Play At ITA Ohio Valley Regionals

Thursday, October 10

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Murray State

ITA

10/14/2024 2:44:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Valeria Chaikovskaia, Yuna Kadowaki and Yu Kikawa were the first Racers to advance to the ITA Regionals Round of 16 in program history.

By: Drew Parsley

The Racers concluded the weekend at the ITA Ohio Valley Regionals after competing with some of the region's best women's tennis players at the Adams Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro, Tennessee hosted by Middle Tennessee.

Murray State competed alongside Austin Peay, Ball State, Bellarmine, Belmont, Butler, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Indiana, IU-Indianapolis, Kentucky, Lipscomb, Louisville, Miami (OH), Middle Tennessee, Northern Kentucky, Purdue, Southeast Missouri, Southern Indiana, Tennessee, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and Xavier.

"It was a great showing from our team this weekend," head coach Jorge Caetano said. "We had several of the program's first accomplishments, which shows our hard work is paying off and that our program and team is trending in the right direction."

Sophomore Valeria Chaikovskaia became the first Racer in program history to advance to the ITA Regionals Singles Round of 16 after defeating her opponent from Lipscomb. The Togliatti, Russia native moves to a staggering 11-2 record for the fall season.

"In singles, we have to continue to get used to competing against the top players in the region," Caetano said. "The margin for errors—especially mental errors—are much smaller and we must continue to improve in that area. Val had another great showing and she is proving she can compete against any of the top players in the nation, which is huge for our program. Everyone else also competed really well. We had chances of getting Yuna and Vivi to the main draw, but unfortunately we fell a little short in those matches."

The doubles pairing of newcomers Yu Kikawa and Yuna Kadowaki became the first Racer duo to advance to the ITA Regionals Doubles Round of 16 after defeating Indiana's top doubles pairing with a great performance. However, the duo fell short of a quarterfinals appearance after falling to the top overall seeded doubles pairing from Tennessee.

"Our doubles looked great this weekend," Caetano added. "The girls are buying in and putting in practice what we teach them by playing aggressively, and it is amazing to see how much we have improved in a couple of months. Yuna and Kiki had a great run and it is a lot of fun to watch them play together."

The full list of results from the weekend can be found below. The Racers close out the fall portion of the 2024-25 season at the Stetson Invitational in Deland, Florida November 1-3.

Singles:
Qualifying Round 1
Callie Flanagan (Cincinnati) def. Paola Campigotto (MSU) 6-2, 6-4
Varvara Alexeyeva (MSU) def. Savannah Presson (UTC) 6-2, 6-1
Li Hsin Lin (Indiana) def. Yuna Kadowaki (MSU) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6

Qualifying Round 2
Ece Gencer (Purdue) def. Varvara Alexeyeva (MSU) 6-2, 6-4

Main Draw Round 1
Valeria Chaikovskaia (MSU) def. Sara Watanabe (Cincinnati) 7-6, 6-1

Main Draw Round 2
Valeria Chaikovskaia (MSU) def. Mariia Dolzhenko (Lipscomb) 5-7, 6-0, 6-4

Main Draw Round of 16
Julia Zhu (UK) def. Valeria Chaikovskaia (MSU) 6-3, 6-1

Blue Raider Invitational
Sierra Montserrat (Dayton) def. Molly Null 6-3, 6-1
Elle Kotre (Indiana Indianapolis) def. Molly Null 6-2, 7-5

Doubles:
Main Draw Round 1
Yu Kikawa/Yuna Kadowaki (MSU) def. Alice Hall/Rozalie Dohnalova (UTC) 8-6
Varvara Alexeyeva/Paola Campigotto (MSU) def. Asia Fontana/Yu-Hua Cheng (APSU) 8-4
Bruna Melato/Valeria Chaikovskaia (MSU) def. Rutuja Chaphalkar/Ilaria Sposetti (MTSU) 8-3

Main Draw Round 2
Yu Kikawa/Yuna Kadowaki (MSU) def. Lara Schneider/Nicole Teodosescu (Indiana) 8-4

Main Draw Round of 16
Elza Tomaze/Catherine Aulia def. Yu Kikawa/Yuna Kadowaki (MSU) 8-4

For more information on the Murray State women's tennis program, visit GoRacers.com or follow @RacersWTennis on X and Instagram.