The Batten University women's tennis team opened competition at the ITA Regional Championships hosted by the University of Mary Washington, highlighted by a strong doubles run from Lexi Hackbirth and Zoe Vliegen to earn a spot in Sunday's semifinals.

Hackbirth and Vliegen opened doubles play with an 8-2 victory over Washington College's Jess Wilde and Samara Fawzi Sanchez. The Marlins duo carried that momentum into the quarterfinals, turning in an even more dominant performance with an 8-1 win over Lynchburg's Giovana Gaboardi and Isabella Ascensio Jaramillo.

With back-to-back victories, Hackbirth and Vliegen advance to the doubles semifinals, where they faced Johns Hopkins' Ruth Sun and Aubrey Zhou falling 8-1 on Sunday morning.

Batten's Mikisha Thomas and Sarah Reich also competed in doubles action, falling 8-1 to Mary Washington's Olivia Geoghegan and Emily Sharpe.

In singles competition, Vliegen represented the Marlins against Christopher Newport's Kendal Chang, falling 6-1, 6-0.