Co-captain Jesse Adler '10 did not lose a set on her way to victory in the women's singles, flight D, at the National Tennis Center Invitational this weekend in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
The tournament, which lasted from Saturday to Monday, was an overall success for the Big Green. Dartmouth appeared in three finals matches.
Dartmouth made it to two of the four doubles finals, but lost both. Adler, along with Sarah Leonard '13, competed in the B flight doubles finals, losing to a third-seeded Princeton tandem, 8-3. Shelley Carpeni '12 and Jeri Reichel '13 competed in the D flight doubles finals, but also lost 8-3 to a pair from Brown.
Despite the losses, head coach Robert Dallis said he was encouraged by the outcome of the events, and that he believed the team surpassed expectations.
"The team played very well," he said. "We had the mentality of expecting to play on Monday."
Dartmouth competed without standouts Mary Beth Winingham '10 and Molly Scott '11, who were competing at an All-American tournament in California, but nevertheless finished with a team record of 22-9 for the weekend.
Adler said she believes that the tournament allowed the team to gain valuable match experience.
"Everyone played really well," she said. "We are right around where we should be."
The tournament, also known as the Billy Jean King Invitational, is the second of the season for the Big Green. It consisted of roughly 20 teams, including all of the Ivy League teams, with 264 players competing. Other teams included North Carolina State University and Boston College.
The tournament consisted of eight singles flights and four doubles flights.
At a meeting earlier last week, the team spoke about the upcoming tournament and left with one goal: to play on Monday, co-captain Julia Zak '10 said. The Big Green accomplished that goal, as four of the seven women competing made it to a final event, with one, Adler, competing in two separate final events.
The team has been practicing for approximately a month for the more individual portion of its year-long season, Adler said. The fall tennis season focuses on individual matches, whereas the spring focuses on team play, she said.
It was good to see the hard work the team has put in during preseason pay off, Zak said.
"This is the best Dartmouth has ever done at this event," she said. "So that was very exciting."
Despite the success of the team, Adler was still cautious about making predictions on the team's future performance.
"[The results were] very exciting, but this is early on in the year," she said.
Before the NTC, the Big Green had a team singles win-loss record of 11-23 and a doubles record of 3-10 this year. Adler was 0-4 in singles.
The two Dartmouth pairs who made it to the doubles finals were a combined 1-4 in matches before the NTC tournament.
Adler, who was the No. 2 seed, won every match she played in the singles flight at the NTC. Her goal of playing on Monday came to fruition when she defeated third-seeded University of South Carolina freshman Ashley Miller, 6-2, 6-4. From there, Adler went on to win the finals, beating Harvard freshman Alex Lehman, 6-4, 6-0.
"It felt good to leave as a senior winning the tournament," Adler said. "I am happy with my performance."
Next on the schedule for the Big Green is the ITA Regionals at Yale, which begin Oct. 23 in New Haven, Conn.
