ACU team third at ITA nationals

Thursday, October 15

Mobile, Ala.

Abilene Christian

ITA National Championships

10/17/2009 11:49:30 AM | Women's Tennis

By: By Lance Fleming

MOBILE, Ala. -- The ACU women's tennis duo of Dina Pavlin and Jaclyn Walker captured their third-place match at the ITA Small College Championships Friday afternoon at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center.

Pavlin and Walker -- who were knocked into the third-place match Thursday afternoon by eventual tournament champion Yuan Jia and Seul Ki Chin of BYU-Hawaii -- wasted little time in whipping Nina Kowalski and Laurie Navarro of California (Pa.), winning the match 6-1, 6-0.

"We struggled through (Thursday) in the loss to the team from BYU-Hawaii with Jaclyn not feeling very good," ACU head coach Hutton Jones said. "But she was 100 percent (Friday) and we did to this team from California what the team from BYU-Hawaii did to us. We really came out sharp and played well."

The team of Kowalski and Navarro pulled off a bit of a surprise in the first round with a 0-6, 6-4, 1-0 (4) win over the team of Katerina Jiskrova and Maggie Ekert from national powerhouse Lynn (Fla.). Lynn knocked ACU out of the NCAA Division II national tournament last spring in the semifinal round.