Tennis Doubles Pairing Falls in ITA Cup Finals

Rome, Georgia- At the 2018 ITA Cup, the doubles pairing of Peeraya Charoensirisutthikul and Rebecca Pijls advanced to the finals match, but fell just short of securing the championship this past weekend.

After winning the NAIA South Regional, the duo entered the tournament as the #3 seeded team.

In the quarterfinals, the Charoensirisutthikul and Pijls won their opening match over Indiana Wesleyan's Maddie Bernisderfer and Thewuni Devaraja to advance to the next round.

In the semifinals, the Golden Tigers team bested Ana Zavala and Zlata Shuraeva from William Woods University 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the finals.

In the finals, the top-seeded pairing from San Diego Christian Nadine Geschke and Sarah Urbanek outlasted the Golden Tigers pairing, 6-4, 6-4, to claim the NAIA doubles championship.

"It's just a fantastic run for Rebecca (Pijls) and Ning (Charoensirisutthikul)," said head coach Andre Ferreira. "They started the fall as an unseeded pair and had very little prior experience playing with each other in doubles. However, they qualified for the national tournament by winning a super difficult NAIA South region, defeated two NAIA regional champions in Rome on the way to the final; and lost a close 6-4, 6-4 in the final against a tough number one seed from San Diego Christian."

"They wanted to win and they believed they could win, and their teammates believed they could win and supported them all the way through," said Ferreira. "They fought until the last point and left everything they had on the court. I cannot think of anything else I could ask from our team. It's been an encouraging and inspiring fall season for me and the team."