Women’s Tennis: Dagan Fruchtman and Feldman come up short of NCAA Tournament qualification at ITA Central Sectional
Following a run to the Doubles Tournament Finals during the 2025 ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Tournament hosted at the University of Michigan, doubles partners Mika Dagan Fruchtman and Neena Feldman looked to run it back at the ITA Central Sectional hosted at Texas A&M.
Feldman and Dagan Fruchtman had an incredible performance at the Midwest Regional last month, reaching the final round before narrowly falling to eventual doubles champions Bojana Pozder and Bianca Molnar from Notre Dame.
Coming off of great momentum yet narrowly missing NCAA Tournament qualification, the Northwestern duo came into the ITA Central Sectional needing either another run to the finals of the doubles tournament or a victory in the third-versus-fourth-place playoff. The two were the only members of Northwestern’s women’s tennis team to participate.
Feldman and Dagan Fruchtman started off the tournament against University of Michigan doubles partners Jessica Bernales and Lily Jones. Undoubtedly, the ‘Cats were seen as underdogs, as Bernales and Jones were ranked inside the top 20 doubles partners in the country — they still sit at 14th — while no Northwestern doubles partners made the top 90, according to the ITA rankings. Ultimately, Feldman and Dagan Fruchtman shocked their opponents, beating the heavily-favored duo from Michigan 6-1, 1-6, 10-8.
The win brought NU directly to the quarterfinals, meaning another victory would guarantee a chance to play for a NCAA Tournament spot. The Wildcats’ opponents were Stanislava Shulzhenko and Maria Paz Alberto Vilar from Iowa State.
Like the first matchup, the quarterfinal match also went a full three sets, leaving tension until the end. Unfortunately for Feldman and Dagan Fruchtman, their run in the tournament ended here, as they narrowly lost the match against the Iowa State duo 6-2, 4-6, 10-8. Although they weren’t able to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Feldman and Dagan Fruchtman showed their ability with standout victories in each of their past two events.
Northwestern women’s tennis has one more tournament left in its fall season, which will be the Notre Dame Invitational that runs from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16.
