POMONA —
Verena Preikschas had several leads against perhaps the top NCAA Division II player in her semifinal match on Saturday. But the experienced Hewenfei Li held off the Warrior at the Wilson/ITA Regional Championships at Cal Poly Pomona.
Vanessa Reibstein also lost to her semifinal opponent, Jenny Chin of BYU Hawaii, after pushing her to three sets, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Chin, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, is among the top 10 in the West and ended up No. 47 a year ago.
Top-seeded Li is the top returning player in Division II after finishing the 2007-08 season at No. 2 and helped her Seasider team advance to the semifinal round of the NCAA Championship tournament.
"They were taking us really serious after seeing what we can do the last couple of days," CSUS head coach Verek Visaraga said. "They just played better on bigger points and that comes with experience."
In the doubles championship match, No. 1 Li and Chin also defeated Reibstein and Preikschas, the fourth seed, 8-3.
In the first set, Preikschas led at 3-2 and 4-2 before dropping 6-4. Li then took the decisive second 6-3. None of Li's opponents had won more than one game the entire tournament until Saturday. Before facing Preikschas, Li had only lost three games in the tournament.
Reibstein's 6-1 set two win over Chin as Chin's first in the tournament as she too had been dominating her opponents winning in straight sets.
"We definitely made an immediate impact in Division II tennis and competed extremely well against the top two teams in our region," Visaraga said. "It was a great showing for us being a first-year program and we are definitely starting on the right foot."
Reibstein and Preikschas are scheduled to play Li and Chin in the doubles championship match this afternoon but they are in a rain-delay as of 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
WIlson/ITA Regional Championships
at Pomona, Calif.
Saturday, Oct. 4
SINGLES
Semifinals
#1 Hewenfei Li (BYU Hawaii) def. #3 Verena Preikschas (Cal State Stanislaus), 6-4, 6-3
#2 Jenny Chin (BYU Hawaii) def. Vanessa Reibstein (Cal State Stanislaus), 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
DOUBLES
Championship
#1 Hewenfei Li/Jenny Chin (BYU Hawaii) def. #4 Preikschas/Reibstein (Cal State Stanislaus), 8-3