September 24, 2006
Release courtesy of Ryan Workman, Coe College sports information director

CEDAR RAPIDS , IOWA . . . Coe College sophomore Molly Fiala added another bullet to her already long list of accomplishments on the tennis courts. The sophomore from Cedar Rapids won this weekends ITA Regional meet, which earned her an invitation to the National ITA meet Oct. 12-15 in Fort Meyers, Fla.

Fiala earned the number two seed heading into the tournament. She won her first match over Megan Walsh (Macalester College) by default. She then defeated Kristina Poplavska of St. Olaf 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16. She ended play on Saturday with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kristin Mikowski of Carthage to advance to the Sunday quarterfinals.

Sunday’s quarterfinal match went by rather quickly as Fiala made quick work of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Nicole Stamm, 6-1, 6-0. The semifinals would boast a match up of the top remaining seeds in the tournament, as Fiala faced third seeded Lauren Ham of Gustavus Adolphus. In one of the closest matches of the tournament, Fiala came out on top 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the championship match.

In the championship, she faced fourth seeded Amanda Sta Romano from Carthage. For the second time this year, Fiala was able to defeat Sta Romano, pulling off a 6-1, 7-6 victory to send her to Nationals.

Complete ITA Midwest Regional results are here.

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