The women’s tennis team competed against strong competition at an eight-team invitational in Charleston, West Virginia, Sept. 24-26.

“I was pretty proud of how our team stepped up against teams from Power Five conferences,” said head coach Eric Hovan. “We have been improving as a team each week and showed we can compete with anybody.

“I was impressed with how well we played under pressure.”

Both Romina Cutipa, a senior from Peru, and Nagisa Miyake, a sophomore from Japan, stepped up their games in singles competition.

Bente Van Der Putte, a freshman from Belgium, also played a very high level of tennis in her singles matches throughout the weekend.

“This past weekend was a great experience for me and I was satisfied with the matches I played,” she said. “I feel that my tennis level is improving the longer I am here. I am playing a lot of competitive matches.”

The Flash also turned in some strong performances in doubles at the invitational.

“Dominique Yeo, Anoek Pruijmboom and Anouk Ma-Ajong really stood out in doubles, giving us a promising feeling heading into the ITA Tournament,” said Hovan.

Cutipa believes the team will benefit from facing such challenging competition.

“I think the tournament was a great experience for the team. We were able to improve our tennis game while getting used to the new level of tennis,” she said. “It was a great opportunity for us to practice what we have been working on, as well as find out what we have to work on.”

This weekend (Oct. 1-3), the team will head to Philadelphia to compete in the ITA Tournament in a competitive field that will include Princeton and Penn State.