Newly crowned ITA regional singles champion Michelle Uyeda represents Linfield College this week at the ITA Cup Fall Championships, running Wednesday-Saturday at the Rome Tennis Center on the campus of Berry College.
 
Uyeda, a sophomore from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, captured her first ITA regional singles title last week after finishing as the regional singles runner-up last fall.
 
Linfield co-coach Lisa Macy-Baker believes Uyeda appears ready to step onto the national stage and perform well. Uyeda is set to square off against Elisa Kendall of East Texas Baptist in Wednesday's play-in match at 9 a.m. Pacific time. The winner then plays third-seeded Caroline Casper of Pomona-Pitzer Thursday at 6 a.m. PDT.
 
As she battled her way through the singles bracket last week with six consecutive straight-sets victories, Uyeda and partner Elsa Harris also prevailed in four doubles contests to reach the regional championship match.
 
"Michelle showed her mental and physical stamina by being efficient and winning some big matches against solid opponents. She had a lot of pressure as the No. 1 seed and handled that really well.
 
"Between last year and this year, she's been in some pressure situations to give her some experience and go into this tournament and hopefully do some damage."
 
With only eight other competitors standing between Uyeda and a national championship, her coach says the sky is the limit for the second-year Wildcat.
 
"We go into the every match with the same approach," said Macy-Baker, referring to the coach's and player's mindset. "Michelle has a really high tennis IQ. With the experience she's gaining, she's going to go a long way."