Beazant continues recent run of dominance

By Teddy Grodek     10/4/12 7:00pm

Going into the fall season of women's tennis, sophomore Natalie Beazant was ranked 15th in the country for singles matches and eighth for doubles with partner junior Dominique Harmath by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Beazant completed a great performance during the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland, Texas, Sept. 14-16. She was the top-seeded athlete in the tournament and proved she was deserving of this ranking.  

Beazant started the tournament by advancing to the quarterfinals with two victories in her singles matches. She defeated Giada D'Ortona (6-4, 6-2) and Natalie Yoo (6-0, 6-2), both from Stephen F. Austin University, in order to  onward to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. 

In her doubles match, Beazant and Harmath won 8-4 against the doubles team from Texas State University. 

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In the quarterfinal round, Beazant defeated Sandra Dynka of Texas Tech University (6-4, 6-2) to advance to the semifinals. She and Harmath won against the University of Nebraska's doubles team 8-2. 

In the last days of the tournament, Beazant demonstrated true dominance. In the semifinal round, she defeated Simona Parajova of Texas Christian University (6-1, 7-6), and immediately went into the finals match. 

Though she had just finished her semifinals game, Beazant continued to stay strong in order to win the singles tournament by winning against Petra Januskova of Penn State University. Beazant won a total of 12 of 14 games throughout the course of the tournament. In the doubles match in the final round, Beazant and Harmath won against Texas Tech's doubles Sandra Dynka and Kelli Hine 8-2 to finish a great beginning to the new season. 

One impressive aspect of Beazant's performance was the sheer volume of tennis that she played during the tournament. 

"It was definitely a lot of matches to play in three days. I played nine matches overall during the three-day tournament. Five singles and four doubles," Beazant said. "That's good though, because that was the purpose of going to play the tournament: to get some match play."

Furthermore, Beazant concluded the tournament by playing four high-leverage matches on Sunday. 

"It was difficult, especially on the Sunday because I had to play two singles then two doubles," Beazant said. "But that's what we do all the fitness and practice for, so in the end it's all worth it. I would have to say that I played my best match in the singles final. I felt that my game started clicking and everything came together for that match. I was getting more and more match-fit the deeper I went into the tournament." 

With her successful start to the tournament, Beazant noted that such success does not come easily. 

"I would say that a lot of it definitely comes down to putting in the hours," Beazant said. "I would also have to say that my team and coaches do an amazing job of helping me stay focused and definitely help me to push myself day to day."

Beazant said that another part of attaining success is maintaining a strong physical and mental status during the time leading up to a match. 

"Physically, I make sure to take care of myself by stretching and making sure to ice bath," Beazant said. "This is something that I do day to day, and not only during tournaments. Mentally, I just make sure that I get myself pumped up for matches and just to make sure that I am focused on the job at hand."

With a new team and a new season, Beazant said that the team will strive to improve and move along in the right direction. She noted last year's appearance in the Sweet 16 and said that this year's team hopes to advance past that mark.

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