WOMEN'S TENNIS: LeTourneau's Sarah Case wins consolation bracket at ITA event

TYLER, Texas – After a first-round setback, LeTourneau's Sarah Case won her final five matches to take the consolation championship at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association tournament at the University of Texas at Tyler this weekend.

Case (pictured) defeated Sonia Del Heirro of McMurry in consecutive sets by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 to win the consolation championship Sunday. Del Heirro opened the match by taking a 3-0 lead in the opening set before Case rallied to win the next six.

The 14th-ranked player in the tournament, Case advanced to the consolation finals by defeating Lizzie Flint of Austin College by consecutive scores of 6-1, 6-1 earlier on Sunday.

Case opened the event with a loss to Stephanie Williamson of Trinity; since then she has been almost unstoppable, losing only two games in her next two matches before prevailing in a three-game set in the consolation quarterfinals Saturday.

To reach the semifinal round, Case needed to come back from a first-set loss to Megan Aarhus of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the tournament's second-ranked player. She did just that, winning the next set 7-5 and the third set 10-3.

The previous consolation round matches saw Case advance via identical 6-1, 6-0 scorelines over Sydney Gonzales of McMurry and Kallie Kent of East Texas Baptist.

Case has logged plenty of distance on the tennis court this weekend, as she teamed with Miranda Lamb to reach the consolation semifinals of the doubles tournament. An 8-5 loss to a pair from Trinity was followed by an 8-3 win over the Kent sisters of ETBU and a 9-8 win over Larissa Lynskey and Jenn Johnson of Howard Payne.

In the semifinals, Lamb and Case dropped a hard-fought decision to Rachel Houston and Megan Tan of Texas-Dallas.

The semifinal loss in doubles play was the only time this weekend that Case lost to an American Southwest Conference opponent.

In other singles action, Morgan Rainer of Hardin-Simmons defeated Lamb in the opening round, while Lauren Layfield of Mary Hardin-Baylor defeated LeTourneau's Ali Goodwin.

Lamb bowed out in the first consolation round after a hard-fought 6-2, 6-4 decision to Lauren Diaz of UT-Dallas. After receiving a bye in the first consolation round, Goodwin advanced to next round, where she succumbed to Ashley Albro of UT Tyler despite giving a valiant effort.