Bianca Aboubakare '11 was the only Bear to qualify for the National Indoors by the end of the three-day ITA East Regionals. As the seventh seed in singles, Aboubakare bypassed the first round with a bye before winning five straight matches to reach the finals.
Aboubakare faced two seeded opponents during the tournament. First was No. 10 seed Pamela Duran of Richmond, whom Aboubakare defeated 7-5, 6-4 in the round of 16. In the following quarterfinal match, she played No. 2 seed Kat Zoricic of William and Mary. Aboubakare lost the first set 3-6, but came back in the second game, 6-4, to extend the game into the third set, in which she narrowly edged out Zoricic, 7-5.
In the semifinal match, Aboubakare faced the unseeded Lauren Cash of Boston College, who had pulled four upsets against seeded players of her own to reach that point. Aboubakare ended Cash's winning streak, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Aboubakare lost the final match 6-0, 6-2, placing second at the tournament, but by just reaching the finals, she was guaranteed a spot in the ITA National Indoors
Aboubakare also advanced deep in doubles with her younger sister Carissa Aboubakare '12. The No. 5-ranked pair won three matches on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday, where they lost to Denise Harijanto and Diana Popescu of Buffalo, 6-8.
Aboubakare will be the lone Bear representing Brown in the National Indoors Tournament in Charlottesville, Va., in two weeks.
