Another weekend, another mark of success this season.
Last weekend, the Binghamton University women’s tennis team traveled to Army for the Eastern Collegiate women’s tennis invitational.
The Bearcats played a total of 23 matches in five different events at the Army Invitational and came home with a 17-6 record. The stars of the weekend were junior Yulia Smirnova and sophomore Marina Bykovskaya, who played doubles together in the first doubles flight. Despite playing just two matches together last season, the junior and sophomore excelled as a team, winning four matches over teams from Providence College, West Virginia University, Quinnipiac University and Duquesne University before losing 8-5 to Candynce Boney and Maude Lecluyse of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the final.
BU head coach Mike Stevens was pleased with the effort of his doubles pair.
“They were not originally supposed to play together this weekend … but they played fantastic tennis and got to the final of a prestigious tournament,” he said.
Coming off last weekend’s strong performance at Cornell University, sophomore Emma Leibowicz followed it up with three match wins this weekend. Leibowicz dropped a tough 3-6, 7-6 (4), 10-5 decision to Emily Harman of Syracuse University, before scoring victories over Jurelle Mendoza of Army, 8-6; Linn Sjorgen of Long Island University, 8-3 and Shannon Benic of the University of Pittsburgh, 8-6. She then succumbed to Julie Prantl of Fairleigh Dickinson University, 8-6, in the finals of the third singles consolation bracket.
“Emma had a great match in her first round. She lost to Harman from Syracuse,” Stevens said. “Even though she lost, she played well and won several matches in the consolation. I like the way she is playing.”
The rest of the Bearcats added to the successful weekend. Sophomore Jillian Santos, playing in the second singles flight, defeated Danielle Crill of Siena College 6-1, 6-0 and Lauren Rottkamp of Bucknell Univesity 6-4, 5-7, 10-8, before dropping a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Julia Comas of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the third round. However, she won two matches in the Desire Singles: the feed in consolation draw for the second singles flight, defeating Rachel Cantor of Quinnipiac, 8-3 and Christine Ordoway of Cornell, 8-2. This put her into the finals of the consolation, which was not played due to rain.
Santos credits the high volume of fall match play for her strong weekend.
“I think all these tournaments are good for us because you get a lot of matches,” Santos said. “They prepare us well for the [spring] season.”
Junior Lauren Bates and sophomore Basak Gone won three matches in their flights as well. Bates lost to Emily Lombardi of Bowdoin College, 6-3, 6-4, in round one of the first singles flight, before proceeding to cruise through the consolation draw. She defeated Kelley LoRusso of the University of Connecticut, Maria Barousse of St. Bonaventure University and Samantha Innacker of Colgate University, all by the score of 8-1. Bates fell, however, to Ira Aleksova of St John’s University in an 8-2 decision in the consolation finals. Gone, playing in the fourth singles flight, defeated Elizabeth Harrington of Sacred Heart University, 6-1, 6-3; Salome Mkervalidze of Stony Brook University 6-4, 6-2 and Paige Ford of Army 6-1, 6-3. She fell to Samantha Noble of Duquesne University, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals of the flight.
“I thought I played okay,” said Bates of her weekend. “I had a bad first and last match. But I played very well in the middle.”
Compared to last season, Stevens sees the team in a better position.
“As a team everyone played well,” Stevens said. “There were small improvements from last year in everyone’s game.”
Despite their coach’s endorsement, however, the Bearcats still feel there is room for improvement and that they are yet to hit their peak this season.
“I think we need to work hard in practice to get to where we want to be in April,” Bates said. “We need to take losing as an experience, work hard, and continue to improve.”
Binghamton has next weekend off from competition and are scheduled to head to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y. to compete in the USTA National Tennis Center Invitational on Oct. 10.