Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Oct. 2, 2022) - Becoming the first Cardinal to advance to the quarterfinals of the ITA Regional Championship, Natalie Bassett of the North Central College women's tennis team highlighted a successful weekend for the women's tennis program.

Bassett was joined by Kaeli Smashey, Abigail Penados, and Kensington Payne in St. Louis as all four opened singles play with a victory. In the round of 32, she beat Lillia Walter of Otterbein College 6-2, 6-0 before knocking off the Denison University Sydney Cianciola who is the fifth seed in the event. Her day ended in the quarterfinals by losing to the top-seeded Sylwia Mikos.of Chicago.

Smashey rolled past her second round opponent from Saint Mary's College (Ind.) 6-2, 6-2. In the round of 16, she fell to No. 8 Nicole Geller from Chicago. Following her win over her Case Western Reserve opponent, Penados dropped a hard-fought match to No. 3 seed Shianna Guo from Chicago in three sets. Payne won her first two matches of the day before falling to Claudia Ng from Chicago.

After receiving a first round bye, Smashey and Bassett fought to an 8-7 win over Emily Markus and Paige Willer of Millikin in doubles play, who they lost to earlier this season. In their next match, they fell to the No. 7 seed from Chicago.

The freshmen tandem of Payne and Penados also earned an 8-7 victory over their DePauw opponents before falling to the ninth ranked duo in Miranda Yuan and Brooke Pedersen of Chicago.

The Cardinals return to CCIW action as they travel to Rock Island on Friday to take on Augustana at 3 p.m.

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