Lahey Wins First Career USTA Pro Circuit Event
6/19/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif.: Rising sophomore Ashley Lahey of the 8th-ranked Pepperdine women's tennis team won the first USTA Pro Circuit event of her career on Sunday afternoon as she downed Ohio State's Francesca Di Lorenzo in two sets for the Sumter 25K title.
Lahey, who finished ranked 11th in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings, bested No. 1-ranked Di Lorenzo with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) final mark in the championship. She entered the tournament as a wild card in the opening round of the main draw, defeating five opponents to reach the final. Di Lorenzo has a pro singles ranking of 339 currently, while Lahey will be ranked later this summer.
Throughout the draw, she bested USA's Abigail Forbes in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 thriller, Mexico's Giuliana Olmos (ITF singles rank: 421) with a 6-4, 6-1 mark, USA's Julia Elbaba (ITF singles rank: 444) after a 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-4 battle and Chinese Taipei's Chieh-Yu Hsu with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2) final result to reach the final against Di Lorenzo.
This season, Lahey now holds a 5-0 record against opponents, while throughout her professional career she has gone 6-1 overall.
On the court for the Waves this season, Lahey tabbed All-American singles status after reaching the quarterfinal of the NCAA Singles Championship and finishing ranked a career-best No. 11 in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings. She earned ITA Southwest Region Player to Watch honors and was tabbed WCC Freshman of the Year and All-WCC first team in both singles and doubles. Lahey picked up WCC Player of the Week honors twice (4/11, 3/7) and reached the U.S. Open Juniors round of 16 to start the season. In her standout freshman campaign, Lahey tabbed a 32-7 overall record, including a 16-3 dual output. She went 15-2 in the No. 2 dual position for the Waves and posted a 12-6 record against nationally ranked competition.
Follow @WavesTennis on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more.
