By MATT PIKE
Northwest Missouri State women's tennis senior Polina Gontaryk brought a singles championship back to Maryville, overcoming four top seeds along the way in Edmond, Oklahoma over the weekend.
Gontaryk earned the ITA Central Regional women's tennis singles title as she knocked off top-seeded Mei Hasewega of Central Oklahoma in three sets. Gontaryk beat four seeded players in the tournament including the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, along with the No. 1 seed for the championship, in each of her last three matches.
Northwest head tennis coach Mark Rosewell, who has a long history of coaching tennis, says the accomplishment from Gontaryk is something even he has never seen before.
"First of all she comes into the tournament unseeded, so this never happens because the people who have seeds are for a reason," Rosewell tells reporters. "She beats four seeded players in the tournament, the last one being the number one seed, a returning All American who lost all of one match last year, so 45 years of coaching and I thought I'd seen it all, but I'd never seen anything like this before in my life, it was just incredible."
Gontaryk came from behind to claim the championship in her match with Hasegawa. Hasegawa won the first set, 6-3 before Gontaryk stormed back and won the second set, 7-5. In the third set, Gontaryk and Hasegawa went the distance and had to decide it with a tiebreaker, which Gontaryk won 8-6. In her earlier matches in the tournament, Gontaryk beat the No. 2 seed AnaMaria Zoric of Augustana in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, and the No. 3 seed Riko Konno of Washburn, 6-4, 7-5.
Gontaryk says despite playing high caliber, top seeded players in the tournament, her mentality was in a good place.
"I was just trying to set myself at the right moments, tell myself that I love the pressure, I perform better under the pressure, I always just kept telling myself that, and I guess it worked," Gontaryk explains.
Next week, Gontaryk will compete in the ITA Cup set for November 4th through the 8th in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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