Posting a 16-10 record in Ithaca, Binghamton University’s women’s tennis had a successful Cornell Invitational as a team at the turn of the Jewish calendar. The most notable and improbable developments at the event were the four matches BU teammates played against each other, a rarity at the collegiate level.

“Watching us play this past weekend, I would say that as a team we are a bit behind where we finished last April,” BU head coach Mike Stevens said. “Some players are playing very good and Emma Leibowicz is a great example.”

In the ‘B’ flight singles for Binghamton was sophomore Emma Leibowicz, senior Danyelle Shapiro and sophomore Yagmur Gone, all advancing to the quarterfinals. Gone fell 6-4, 6-3 to Kristen Kohagen of Cornell. Leibowicz defeated her teammate Shapiro 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals of the flight, before dropping the final match 6-4, 6-1 to Susan Sullivan of Cornell.

“Emma had a very good weekend,” Stevens said. “She played well in both singles and doubles and has improved tremendously from last spring.”

The Invitational featured an ‘A’ and ‘B’ flight, with players randomly sorted through the draws. Players that won continued to advance further into the draw, while players that lost played against each other in the consolation rounds. In the ‘A’ flight singles for the Bearcats were juniors Lauren Bates and Yulia Smirnova and sophomores Jillian Santos and Marina Bykovskaya. They all lost second-round matches to players from Cornell.

With consolation victories against players from Lehigh University, Colgate and St. Bonaventure, the semifinals of the consolation draw featured the four Binghamton players. Bykovskaya defeated Santos 8-4, while Bates beat Smirnova 8-1. Bates defeated teammate Bykovskaya 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the finals to win the consolation draw of the ‘A’ flight. None of the players have ever played against each other in a tournament match at the NCAA level before this weekend.

“It definitely was strange to play so many matches against each other,” said Bates of the unique situation. “But playing matches is always good practice for competition, no matter who it is against. Even if we play each other, we still get better.”

The strong performance of the Bearcats throughout the Cornell Invitational has Bates excited as the team heads toward its spring dual schedule.

“Everyone competed hard, and stayed positive,” Bates said. “I was happy with play in the consolation rounds and it was great that one of my teammates also reached the finals of consolation also.”

The Bearcats performed well in doubles over the weekend as well, although not against each other. In the ‘A’ flight doubles, Santos and Bates reached the semifinals, before falling to Sullivan and Sarah O’Neill of Cornell 8-4. Smirnova and Gone fell to Kristin Lim and Siziana Chis of Cornell, 8-4, in the quarterfinals, but won the consolation draw with an 8-2 win over Stephanie Brown and Samantha Inacker. Leibowicz and Bykovskaya reached the ‘B’ flight doubles final, where they fell to Geraldine Leong and Kristing Kohagen of Cornellm, 8-2.

While the Bearcats won many matches over the weekend, Bates expressed satisfaction, but wanted to make sure that complacency did not set in with the team.

“It is only September,” she said. “We need to continue to compete hard like we did this weekend, work on our goals and remain focused to get to where we want to be by the end of the season.”

Stevens made it clear that the team has a lot to work on individually.

“Since tennis is such an individual sport, each individual has certain aspects of their game that need improving at this time,” Stevens said. “The most important aspect would be that they each need to get extra hitting in several times a week to work on their weaknesses and develop more weapons.”

The Bearcats will be in West Point next weekend, when they travel to Army to compete in the Eastern Collegiate championships.

“Our tournament next weekend at Army is another individual/flighted event with 32 teams competing,” Stevens said. “We are looking forward to the competition and improving upon our play this past weekend.”