Aztec junior Andjela Skrobonja fought her way to the semifinals of the ITA Women’s Southwest Regional Championships to highlight a busy week of play at the Aztec Tennis Center.
In heartbreaking fashion, Skrobonja gave up two 4-1 game leads to No. 49 ranked Pepperdine junior Savannah Broadus on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 23.
“She’s so skilled and so talented and I know that she’s very disappointed right now,” head coach Peter Mattera said. “But to make it to the semifinals of this tournament, we haven’t had anybody do that in an awfully long time and this is only her second tournament as an Aztec.”
It was an emotional and mentally demanding game for both players, Skrobonja attempting to keep her head in the game after picking up early leads and Broadus overcoming early lapses to come back during the long gruesome sets.
“(Skrobonja) needs to sometimes allow herself to use her gifts, and her gifts are many but if she gets clouded up into the negative space then her gifts don’t always get to come out. But I think she’s learning that and I think today was probably an invaluable lesson.
With the event starting on Thursday, Skrobonja overcame players from Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, UCLA and USD with top players from around the state attending the event. No. 1 ranked USC senior Eryn Cayetano also attended, advancing to the quarterfinals before falling.
SDSU also had the majority of their roster play at the tournament with sophomore Rania Azziz the only player missing.
The pairs of seniors Alicia Melosch and Tamara Arnold, juniors Andjela Skrobonja and Dariya Detkovskaya as well as senior Cecile Morin and junior Andreea Velcea made up the three doubles teams for the Aztecs. Each Aztec featured in singles play as well with junior Alexandria Von Tersch Pohrer joining in.
The team of Detkovskaya and Skrobonja advanced furthest in doubles with a trip to the round of 16. The pair fell 8-4 to the USC duo of sophomores McKenna Koening and Isabelle lee while Arnold went second furthest in singles, falling to No. 49 Broadus in the round of 16.
“Overall we had a really good performance. We played a lot of good high level matches which is the benefit of this tournament,” Mattera siad. “You get match after match as long as you’re physically still able and we got a lot of high level matches against some good competition.”
The Aztecs have earned themselves a rest, they return to action during the SDSU Fall Classic II on Nov. 11 at the Aztec Tennis Center for their last action until January.
“We’re gonna take a couple days off, give them a chance to get caught up on their studies, and get fresh,” Mattera said. “Nobody that played in this event is fresh. Maybe they have little things that need to get better so we’re hoping maybe Wednesday everyone feels tremendously better.”
