Over the weekend, from Thursday, Oct. 12 through Sunday, Oct. 15, the UNI women’s tennis team competed in the ITA Regional Championships in Lawrence, Kansas. Competing for the Panthers was Issa Sullivan, Darta Dalecka, Kim Zizek and Lasya Mylavarapu.

On Thursday it was open singles, and all of the Panthers minus Dalecka were in action. The other three got two matches for the day. Sullivan, Mylavarapu, and Zizek all lost their round of 128 matches, landing all three of them in the consolation bracket. Sullivan and Mylavarapu lost again in the qualifying round for the consolation tournament, but Zizek was able to qualify for the round of 64, defeating Lilian Tiemeyer of Nebraska 6-2 and 6-3.

 Friday was a bit different, as it was both doubles and singles. For singles, Dalecka was the only one in action for the Panthers, competing in the main stage. In the round of 128, she lost the first set 6-3, won the second 6-4, but lost the deciding set 6-3. This moved Dalecka into the consolations bracket. In doubles action for the Panthers, Dalecka teamed up with Zizek and the pair lost 8-2 in the round of 64. 

After getting a win due to her opponent being injured for the round of 32 in the consolation bracket, Dalecka was competing in the round of 16 on Saturday. The match was a close one, but Dalecka managed to pull out the victory and moved on to the quarterfinals. The quarter finals were played later that day, and Dalecka went up against Aliksandra Lebedeva. She won the first set of the match 7-5, but that is where her good run would come to an end. She would lose the next two sets by a score of 6-3. This would eliminate her from the tournament, and bring an end to UNIs time at the ITA Regional Championships. 

While the team did not find any success at the main stage of the tournament, Dalecka put up a nice effort in the consolation bracket for singles. The Panthers will be done playing for a while, as the true full season does not begin until the spring.