WHITEWATER, Wis. - In her last appearance at the ITA Regional Fall Championships, Sabrina Tang '23 advanced to the quarterfinal round.
Fast forward to 2021, and the Grinnell College women's tennis player stands supreme in the 128-entry field.
Tang became just the second Grinnell player to win the ITA title, matching the feat by Laura Krull in 2012.
Tang was looking for improvement over her quarterfinal round performance from 2019, but got so much more. "My goal entering the tournament was ideally to improve upon my result from 2019, but primarily to just play the best tennis I could," she explained. "I wanted to implement some of the patterns and strategies I had been working on in practice as well as just being a good sport and having fun. This weekend I think I played some of the best tennis I've ever played. I was patient and worked the point until I got the right ball to put away, and sometimes I would force errors by keeping it consistently deep in the court and moving my opponent side to side. My serve was also more reliable than it has been in the past."
After receiving a first-round bye and collecting wins in the rounds of 64, 32 and 16, the sixth-seeded Tang opened Sunday's action by breezing past third-seeded Kelsey Dorr of St. Catherine's University by scores of 6-1, 6-1.
Tang kept up the momentum in the semifnal round, coasting past seventh-seeded Autumn Bruno of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by 6-1, 6-1 scores.
Tang was particularly happy how she competed against her quarterfinal and semifinal foes. "Going on court I knew they would both be tough matches," she said. "I found my groove quickly and I was hitting the spots I wanted, though I had to fight every point to outlast my opponent physically and mentally. The matches required a degree of tenacity and focus that I don't think was reflected in the score."
After those wins, Tang defeated Mary Frances Hose of Carleton College, the second seed, by default to claim individual honors.
Tang is looking to feed off the momentum provided by the ITA title. "I think the knowledge that I can compete at this level is a great confidence booster, and I will continue to work hard to improve even more," she said.
