Match Results

Los Angeles, CA -- The Urban Knights continued their fall slate of tournaments last week, participating in the ITA Fall Regional at Cal State Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday. The Knights had success in both singles and doubles, with Amal Ben El Hadj making it to the third round in singles and Daniela Amelunge Antelo and Nina Gajdosikova making it to the third round before falling to the second-seeded doubles team in the tournament.

"We have to learn and get better," said head coach Jerry Peach. "The only place to do this is at a tournament, where the pressure to play well is always on each point. The other teams are very good and they made us work for every point we won. All in all, we had a competitive time."

The tournament opened for the Knights with Jenny Johansson and Ben El Hadj winning their first round matches. Diana Juhasz lost her match to Stephanie Quan of second-ranked Azusa Pacific. Johansson fell in the second round but Ben El Hadj made her way into Friday's third round. On the doubles front, Johansson and Kinga Kurczbuch fell in their match against Sonoma State, Amelunge Antelo and Gadjosikova took down their Seawolves opponents to make it to the second round.

"Amal had her best day ever as an Urban Knight," said Peach. "She showed her senior leadership today.  She never really looked down, even when she was behind.  She played smart, mixed her shots up, and kept up the hustle to give herself a chance to win, then brought the victories home."

The second day began with Ben El Hadj falling to the seventh-overall seed in the tournament Erika Januskova (Fresno Pacific), but continued with Michelle Dandik making into the semifinals for the consolation singles prize, defeating opponents from Dominican and Holy Names before falling to Benjoit McCrary of Azusa Pacific. Amelunge Antelo and Gajdosikova continued their strong play, taking down their counterparts from Cal State Los Angeles before finally succumbing to the two-seed Cougars from APU.

"Daniela and Nina were the story on Friday," said Peach. "Their doubles win over the Cal State LA team was very solid. Their match with Harris and Ingwaldson of Azusa Pacific, however, was really great competition. We had match point at 7-6, one point away from winning. A win over them would have been a great accomplishment for the team. The girls played well enough to win, things just did not go our way."