Agarycheva Defeats #12 Seed, Reaches Round of 16 at Ojai Tournament

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

OJAI, CALIF. -- Natalia Agarycheva (Jr., Vancouver, WA/Prairie HS/U. of Northern Colorado) of Willamette University won two singles matches at the Ojai Valley Tournament to advance to the Round of 16 in the Women's Independent Singles bracket on Thursday, April 22. Agarycheva swept through her first match, but had to rally against #12 seed Ashley Litchfield of Point Loma Nazarene University in the second round.

Agarycheva opened the tournament by breezing past Leslie Tong of Cal Tech, 6-0, 6-0. In the second round, Litchfield downed Agarycheva in the first set, 6-0. The match wasn't over, however, as Willamette's top player rallied for a 6-3 win in the second set, before taking the third set 6-4.

With the win, Agarycheva became the first non-seeded player to defeat a seeded player in this year's Women's Independent Singles bracket.

Up next for Agarycheva is a meeting on Friday, April 23 with #7 seed Sheryl Bon of Azusa Pacific University in the Round of 16. Bon received a bye in the first round and then defeated Kelly Fox of Chapman University, 6-1, 6-0. Agarycheva and Bon will begin their match at 9:30 a.m. (PDT).

The winner will advance into a quarterfinal match on Saturday. Action will continue with the semifinals on Saturday and will conclude with the championship match on Sunday.

Agarycheva is now 20-2 this spring. She helped Willamette place fourth in the Northwest Conference during the regular season, as the Bearcats went 11-5 in the NWC's double round-robin schedule. WU was 12-9 overall during the dual match season.