Biola hosted the USTA/ITA Regional NAIA Championships Sept. 25-27. The women’s team advanced three of their players to the second round of the singles bracket and reached the semifinals of the doubles bracket after beating the top seeded Westmont College.

The number one singles player for Biola and runner up of the tournament last year, junior Kathryn Ashford, sat out of the singles tournament this year. Of the five participating singles players for Biola, three advanced to the next round. Sophomore Madeline Heer, junior Susan Carmichael and sophomore Kelsey Post all lost in their second round of the tournament. 

“I think we did okay considering how much we’ve been practicing lately,” said Carmichael. “I think we saw a lot of the things we need to work on in order to be competitive.”  

The Eagles made more of an impact on the doubles bracket. Ashford and Carmichael forced their way to the semifinals past the top seeded Westmont team. They beat Westmont in a dramatic fashion, winning in the tiebreak 7-4.

Ashford and Carmichael continued on to play Concordia University’s Kathrine Jensen and Kaitlyn Uzzi in the semifinals. The Eagles lost with a final score of 8-3.

“We weren’t playing like we normally do,” said Ashford, “and I think we were a little too relaxed after our win against the number one seed. We kind of got off and just never got back on track in time.”

Finishing the tournament first in doubles and second in singles, Arizona Christian University will be this year’s team to beat.

“We definitely have a lot of work to do,” Ashford said. “I think really just training hard, working together as a team and getting used to each other’s chemistry on and off the court.”

Biola has all semester to get back into the swing of things as they look to improve upon their 7-17 record of last season.