Oct. 8, 2009
Arizona State junior women's tennis player Kelcy McKenna continued her quest to defend her ITA All-American title as she passed through the first stage of the prestigious tournament. McKenna, who entered the tournament seeded seventh, prevailed in a hard-fought first round match against Fani Chifchieva of Auburn. McKenna handed Chifchieva a 6-4 loss in the first set and outlasted the preseason No. 10 player 7-6 in the second to move onto the Round of 16. McKenna will face No. 16 Venise Chan of Washington in her next match.
Earlier in the day, McKenna teamed up with fellow All-American Micaela Hein in the doubles competition. The No. 14 duo dropped a tough match to the No. 4 seed North Carolina team of Sanaz Marand and Sophi Grabiniski, falling 8-6. They will face the nation's top ranked team of Andersson and Juricova of California in tomorrow's match in the consolation bracket.
Hein had previously competed in the qualifying singles, dropping both her matches. In her initial match, she fell 6-0, 6-1 to Megan Alexander of TCU. She suffered a similar fate to Ragina Acharya of William and Mary, dropping that match 6-1, 6-1.
Senior Nadia Abdala was also invited to the ITA All-American, but declined due to nursing a minor injury. She is expected to be back at the next tournament.