ORLANDO, Fla. – App State Tennis standout Savannah Dada-Mascoll continued to solidify her position as one of the nation's top players Wednesday, securing a dominant straight-sets victory that propelled her into the Round of 16 at the NCAA Singles Championships and clinched an ITA All-America honor.
Playing at the USTA National Campus, Dada-Mascoll defeated Clemson's Ria Bhakta by a decisive score of 6-3, 6-0 in a Round of 32 match. Building off a 6-3, 6-3 win against Cal's Naomi Xu in the opening round Tuesday, the fourth-seeded Dada-Mascoll has advanced to a Thursday match at 10 a.m. against 47th-ranked Emma Charney from Southern Cal.
Fans can stream the action live on ESPN+.
A senior from Yorkshire, England, Dada-Mascoll arrived in Orlando as the first Mountaineer to ever compete in the NCAA Singles Championships. She is the only player left in the singles draw from a school outside a traditional power conference, as the other 15 players include five ACC players, five Big Ten players, four SEC players and one Big 12 player.
Starting the event with a 2-0 record instantly makes her the first ITA All-American in App State Tennis history. To qualify for the ITA All-America team, you must be the ITA All-American singles champion, advance to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Singles Championships or finish in the top 20 of the final ITA rankings.
Continuing a spectacular fall in which she made national headlines by winning a combined eight matches against ranked opponents at the ITA All-American Championships in late September and her ITA Regional in October, Dada-Mascoll followed her strong performance Tuesday by capturing five of the last seven games of the opening set Wednesday for a 6-3 margin. She then delivered a masterclass in the second set, winning 6-0 to complete the clean sweep and continue her history-making tournament run.
