THE magical run for Eglinton's Grace Schumacher and her University of South Florida Bulls women's tennis team in the 2022 American Athletic Conference Tournament may have come to an end, but not before some stunning results.
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Schumacher's side, who went into the event as the ninth seed, won their opening round of the tournament 4-3 against eighth-seeded Temple and then recorded a huge upset with a takedown of the top-seeded Central Florida 4-3 to earn a spot in the AAC semi-finals.
Unfortunately for the USF Bulls side they were swept 4-0 by second seeds Memphis in last Friday's semi-final but it was still a tournament performance the team could be proud of.
In the Memphis defeat Schumacher and her doubles partner Margret Timmermans defeated the team of Alisha Reayer and Camila Soares 6-3, but losses in the other two doubles sets for USF awarded their rivals one point.
Aran Teixido Garcia proved too strong for Schumacher in the singles, 6-4, 6-2, and losses for three of the Eglinton player's teammates led to the overall 4-0 loss.
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But that shouldn't take the shine of what USF and Schumacher went through to get themselves to that point.
In the tournament's opening round Schumacher and Timmermans were far too strong for Sena Takebe and Evie Wei in a 6-1 victory but, just like the semi-finals, losses in the other two doubles matches for the Bulls gave their opponents the first point of the round.
However, Bulls rallied in the singles to recover from a two sets deficit, with Schumacher winning the number one singles match over Vineetha Mummadi 6-3, 7-5.
Then the Bulls claimed their most spectacular result of the season in the success over Central Florida, who are the 19th nationally-ranked college in the US.
Schumacher recovered from her doubles defeat with Timmermans and had a brilliant win in her singles clash with a 7-5, 6-4 success over the 106-ranked Evgeniya Levashova.
Victories in the singles for Schumacher's teammates Sierra Berry, Laura Pellicer and Amelie Boy secured the 4-3 quarter-final win for the USF Bulls.
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Alexander Grant
Part of the Western Advocate's sports desk in Bathurst.
Part of the Western Advocate's sports desk in Bathurst.
