The Pirates’ women’s tennis team closed out play at the West Point Invitational on Sunday. The three-day invitational saw some strong individual performances from blue and white veterans and program newcomers.
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Junior Julia Keenan reached the semifinal round of third singles after defeating Victoria Falk of host-Army in the round of 32, Shreya Pasricha of Fairleigh Dickinson in round of 16 and Brittany Collens of UMass Lowell, before ultimately falling in the semifinal round to Komal Safdar of Syracuse, who went on to win the final round of third singles after defeating Stony Brook’s Cassandra Dix.
While the veteran Keenan highlighted a strong run for the blue and white, freshman Luize Strike, playing in first singles, had an impressive day as well. The Latvian newcomer advanced to the quarterfinal round after defeating Marist’s Claire Schmitz in the round of 32 and Sanne Louwers of LIU Brooklyn. Strike fell in the quarterfinal round to Kristina Vozniak of Stony Brook, before she ultimately was defeated in the semifinal round. Also seeing quarterfinal action was junior-transfer from Gonzaga, Isabell Klingert. Klingert competed in fourth singles, advancing to the quarterfinal with a round of 32 win over Chassidy King of Albany and a round of 16 ‘W’ over Isabel Balsavage of UMass. Klingert was defeated in quarterfinal action to Syracuse’s Nicole Mitchell, who captured the win in the final round of fourth singles after defeating Becky Shtilkind of Stony Brook.
Junior Hannah Liljekvist fell in round of 16 action to Polina Movchan of Stony Brook after defeating St. Bonaventure’s Santori Martinez in first singles. Freshman Katie Kim also fell to a Stony Brook competitor after being knocked off in the round of 16 by Yana Nikolaeva, who went on to make the semifinal round before being eliminated herself. Kim reached the round of 16 after defeating Lehigh’s Bezzy Maravich in the round of 32. Senior Madison Shoemaker captured a round of 32 victory over Elizabeth Brozovich before falling in a round of 32 match against UMass’ Chanel Glasper in fourth singles.
Rounding out the Pirates’ group in singles competition was senior Anna Guryanova, who fell to Stony Brook’s Cassandra Dix in third singles.
The Hall entered with two pairs in the first doubles. Marisa Quevedo and Luize Strike were ousted by NJIT’s duo of Zanotta Carolina and Ines Vujkovac. Meanwhile, the blue and white’s pair of Hannah Liljekvist and Julia Keenan reached the quarterfinal round before falling to Arielle Griffin and Aarzoo Malik of UMass.
In second doubles action, the Hall’s pair of Anna Guryanova and Isabell Klingert reached the round of 16, before losing to Chanel Glasper and Anna Woosley of UMass Lowell. Katie Kim and Madison Shoemaker were topped by host-Army’s Allyson Hayley and Julian Mok in round of 32 to close out the Pirates’ play in West Point.
The women’s tennis will have next weekend off, the team will begin play at the Navy Blue and Gold Invitational in Annapolis, Md., from Oct. 10—12.
Neal McHale can be reached at neal.mchale@student.shu.edu or on twitter @nealmchale.
