Rice University
Midland Invite
Two of Three Advance in Midland Tourney Singles Action
9/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2011
Sophomore transfer Katie Gater defeated the Midland Invitational's defending champion to join teammate Dominique Harmath in the Round of 16 after the first day of completion at the Midland Racquet Club.
Gater, who transferred to Rice from Virginia, sent both of her matches to third-set tiebreaks to advance. In morning action, she rebounded from a first set loss to down Michelle Farley of Tulsa, 3-6, 7-6, 10-5 to earn second round berth against Julia Mongin of Abilene Christian, who captured the singles crown last year. After taking the opening set 6-1, Gater found herself in her second-straight third set tie-breaker, emerging with a 10-7 win.
Harmath, who was second on the Owls as a freshman with a 15-8 singles mark last spring and came into the weekend as the sixth seed, opened with a first-round bye but then fell behind Nebraska's Stefani Weinstein 5-1 in the first set before rallying to win a tie-break and close the match out in straight sets (7-6 (7-3), 6-4)
Rice freshman Natalie Beazant made a successful collegiate debut by winning her first round match with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Frederike Putthoff of Nebraska before dropping her second round match to sixth-seeded Khunpak Issara of Pepperdine in three sets (2-6, 6-2, 5-10).
"It was great to see Dominique fight back from down 5-1 in the 1st but, frankly, it isn't surprising since one of her greatest assets is her competitive spirit and will to win," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "Coming through in three separate tiebreakers against two very high quality opponents was an excellent start to (Katie) Gater's career at Rice. She has a very strong work ethic and that paid off today. Natalie played very solid tennis today. We were happy for her get her 1st win as a Rice Owl. And, despite the final outcome of her second match, it was great to see her problem-solve and find a way to win that second set," Schmidt added.
Harmath and Gater will be back on the court at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning with matches against Stefanie Tan of TCU and Kenna Kilgo of Texas Tech.
Harmath and Beazant also advance in doubles play on Friday. After a first-round bye, the pair defeated LSU's Whitney Wolf and Olivia Howlett 8-6 and earned the right to play the tournament's top seed, Khunpak Issara and Lorraine Guillermo on Saturday.
