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Six Women's Tennis Teams in Fall Tournament Action This Weekend
Portions courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Six Ivy women's tennis teams
will be on the courts this weekend, most opening their fall
schedules for the 2010-11 season.
Cornell first-year head coach Mike Stevens will
get his first experience with Big Red women's tennis as the program
hosts Binghamton, Buffalo, Colgate, St. Bonaventure, Syracuse and
Temple in the Cornell Fall Invitational at the Reis Tennis Center.
Columbia hosts its Columbia Invitational, which will also feature
Penn and Princeton, while Dartmouth opens up its fall season at the
University of Virginia Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., and
Yale starts its year at the Georgia Hidden Dual Tournament in
Atlanta. Princeton is splitting its squad for the opening weekend
as Rachel Saiontz, Brett Ellen
Keeler, Taylor Marable and Hilary
Bartlett are competing at Duke Fab Four Event in Cary,
N.C., against a field stacked with players ranked on the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association's preseason list.
Brown is the only Ivy team not in action this weekend. The Bears
open their fall slate hosting the Brown Invitational September
24-26. Harvard is also not in action this weekend but the Crimson
has already gotten in its first action of the season, as did
Columbia and Penn, Sept. 10-12 at the 18th annual William and Mary
Invitational in Williamsburg, Va.
A LOOK BACK
Columbia, Harvard and Penn each had strong showings at the 18th
annual William and Mary Invitational.
In her first outing at the college level, freshman Connie
Hsu brought home the Flight A Singles championship,
topping fellow Ivy Leaguer Holly Cao of Harvard, 6-3, 6-2. Hsu also
competed in the finals of the Flight B Doubles draw with senior
Alexa Ely, but the duo fell to Winthrop's
Sandra Herrerra and Giovanna
Portiolli in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (3). Cao won her first
three Flight A Singles matches in straight sets, including a win
over No. 45 Lindsey Hardenbergh of Virginia in the
semifinals, to reach the finals. Columbia's Nicole
Bartnik also competed in Flight A Singles but had to
retire in her first match against Hardenbergh.
Samantha Rosekrans, competing in Flight C, began
the tournament with a victory over Kelly Tidwell
of Richmond, 7-5, 6-3. She advanced to the semifinals after
Arina Alilueva of Old Dominion retired in the
second set of their quarterfinal match. Olga
Terteac of Virginia Commonwealth would knock Rosekrans off
in the semifinals though, 6-3, 7-5. Rosekrans bounced back and
finish in third-place as she defeated Caryssa
Peretz of Virginia, 2-6, 7-5, 11-9, in the consolation
match. Cao and Rosekrans would pair up in Flight A Doubles, playing
to a 2-2 record. Natasha Makarova of Columbia also
competed in Flight C Singles and earned two wins after falling in
her opening match.
In Flight B Singles play, Harvard sophomore Kristin
Norton and freshman Natalie Blosser each
dropped a pair of matches before securing victories in the
consolation bracket. Norton defeated Rashmi
Teltumbde of Virginia, 6-2, 7-5, while Blosser defeated
Shannon Betts of Virginia Tech, 4-6, 7-6 (3),
10-6. Norton and Hideko Tachibana teamed up in
Flight A Doubles play to defeat Joanna Dobrowlska
and Diana Ivanova of Old Dominion, 9-8 (4), in the
consolation bracket. Tachibana also added two singles victories in
the consolation bracket of Flight A.
Columbia's Chelsea Davis went 1-2 in Flight D
Singles with her win coming in the consolation bracket against
Eastern Michigan's Marcela Rivero. Lion teammate
Katerina Kovacevic also went 1-2 in her Flight E
Singles matches and also fell to William & Mary's Katie
Kargl in a Flight B Singles contest.
The Crimson's Alexandra Lehman also tally two
singles victories in the consolation bracket of Flight D. Lehman
defeated Columbia's Davis, 6-0, 6-3, and Marshall's Maria
Voscekova, 6-3, 6-4.
The Lions' duos of Bartnik and Davis teamed up to go 2-2 while
Kovacevic and Makarova lost their two matches with their opening
loss courtesy of Harvard's Hsu and Ely in Flight B Doubles.
