Courtesy: Princeton Athletic CommunicationsMatija Pecotic won his consolation match Friday at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships and Amanda Muliawan came close to doing the same.
Pecotic defeated Georgia State's Victor Valente in short order, 6-1, 6-0, a day after losing just his second match of the fall season. Pecotic will face Cameron Silverman of Elon in an 11 a.m. consolation quarterfinal match Saturday at the National Tennis Center in New York.
"Matija bounced back with a good win today and played well start to finish," Princeton men's head coach Billy Pate said. "He displayed a great attitude from the onset and it showed in his focus and execution. Tomorrow is another challenge and another opportunity."
In other men's action, Zack McCourt and Dan Richardson opened play at the clay-court Lakewood Ranch Invitational. McCourt defeated Chris Haworth of Oklahoma State 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, while Richardson lost to Gordon Watson of Florida 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. The Princeton duo also won a doubles match against Haworth and Richard Del Nunzio from Oklahoma State 8-5.
Muliawan was two games from pulling off what would have been a huge upset against Texas A&M's Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, who was ranked No. 4 in the nation on the preseason ITA list. The freshman Muliawan won the first set 6-4 and was up 4-3 in the second set before the Aggie senior rallied to force a third set. Sanchez-Quintanar came away with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win to move on in the consolation bracket.
"Amanda played some high quality tennis today," Princeton women's assistant coach Sadhaf Fath said. "She had her opportunity to go up 5-3 in the second set and put pressure on Cristina to hold to stay in the match. Cristina showed us today why she is No. 4 in the country. Her best tennis came out on the big points. Amanda being exposed to this type of high-level tennis and being so close in beating the best players in the nation shows that Amanda is going to be, and is, a top player. As a coach, I am very proud of Amanda and I know this experience has made her a better player."
More information on the tournament, including updated draws, are available here.
