Playing on the courts that form the heart of American tennis, a Bearcat rose above all competitors. Senior Anna Edelman won the top singles award at the United States Tennis Association National Tennis Center Invitational.

The tournament, played at the prestigious Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, featured eight singles flights and four doubles flights. Edelman, playing in A-Singles, was the No. 4 seed in her bracket and had to face four opponents en route to the title.

Her first two matches were easy victories, beating Marija Dzakovic of Charleston Southern University 6-0, 6-1 in the round of 16 and Christina Ordaway of Cornell University 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. The semifinals were a much more serious challenge. Yale University’s Elizabeth Epstein, who had upset second-seeded Amy Zhang of Rutgers University in the quarterfinals, pushed Edelman to the limit in each of their sets. In the end, though, the Bearcat came out victorious 7-5, 7-5.

That took Edelman to the finals of the A-Singles flight at Flushing Meadows Park. Her opponent was top-seeded Bianca Aboubakare of Brown University. Edelman took the first set 6-3, but Aboubakare rallied back to take the second set 6-4. In the final set of the match, Edelman let there be no doubt that she deserved the title. She took the set 6-0, winning both the match and the title.

Last year, no Bearcat made it past the semifinals of their flight. This time around, the Bearcats made their presence felt. In the F-Singles flight, junior Marina Bykovskaya advanced to the finals before dropping her match 6-3, 7-5 to Harvard University’s Samantha Gridley, who was the second seed. The doubles teams of Bykovskaya and Edelman, who played in A-Doubles, and freshman Jennifer Fridman and senior Yulia Smirnova, who played in C-Doubles, each lost in the semifinals.

It was Edelman, though, who starred for BU. Her victory comes a week after being invited to play in the ITA/Riviera Women’s All-American Tennis Championships, where she lost her first-round match. She was the first Bearcat to be invited to play in the event. She is ranked No. 108 in the nation by the ITA. In her first two tournaments of the season, she lost in the semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively, both times to fellow Bearcats.

The Bearcats are in action again at the ITA East Regional in Hanover, N.H. at the end of the month. It is the last tournament of the season for BU.