Binghamton University’s women’s tennis knew that it needed to recruit well for this season to improve enough to beat Boston and win the America East.

And they sure found an elite player in Jillian Santos.

Santos was resilient at the Cornell Invitational, sweeping through the bracket with some tough victories to win the A flight singles, and doubles with teammate Anna Edelman. In singles she defeated Sinziana Chis of Cornell to start her campaign 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and then went on to romp 6-2, 6-2 over Elyse Steiner of Temple. She then defeated Natalie Sanchez of Cornell 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (6), before going on to defeat teammate Lauren Bates in the finals 7-6, 6-1.

In doubles, Edelman and Santos started their campaign with wins over the host team Cornell: they defeated Tamara John and Elizabeth Googe, 8-3, and then defeated Chis and Ruxandra Dumitrescu, 9-7. In the finals, they took down Steiner and Dina Senkina of Temple, 9-7.

Santos was elated to have accomplished so much at Cornell over the weekend.

“I wasn’t really expecting that much,” said the Flushing native. “I was hoping to win a match or so, so to win the tournament, in singles and doubles, was really good.”

Edelman, after seeing her success with Santos in the A doubles, was very satisfied with her team’s play.

“We played very well in doubles,” Edelman said. “We had a lot of energy. We came to the net every chance we had and we were aggressive out there.”

The Bearcats had solid contributions from the rest of their team at the Cornell Invitational as well.

Edelman, for starters, did win the A doubles flight with Santos. She also scored a 6-1, 6-4 win over Maria Barousse of St. Bonaventure in the “A” singles. Bates also contributed to the solid weekend for Binghamton. She defeated Lucie Pazderova 6-2, 6-4 and Googe 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals of the A singles.

In the semis, she defeated Senkina 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to advance to the finals before losing to Santos. With partner Yulia Smirnova, Bates also posted an 8-3 win over Elise DeRose and Alexandra Erickson of Colgate in the A flight. Bates expressed positive emotion about how she played, as well as the rest of her team.

“I think the weekend went pretty well. We had two players get to the finals (herself and Santos), and one of our doubles teams won their flight. Everyone played well this weekend.”

The rest of the Bearcats performed well over the weekend at Cornell as well. In “B” singles, Smirnova took an easy 6-0, 6-1 decision over Cameron Williams of Colgate in her first round singles match. Junior Danyelle Shapiro, also in B singles, was victorious in three sets in her first singles match as well, a grueling 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 triumph over Catherine Duboc of Cornell. Freshman Emma Leibowicz got to the semifinals of C singles with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Stephanie Brown of Colgate, and a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Victoria Vityuk of Lehigh. Leibowicz also teamed up with Shapiro to score an 8-4 victory over Williams and Cameron Thaney of Colgate in B doubles.

Santos, Binghamton’s shining newcomer, summed up the weekend best.

“We had a good weekend. I think this sets us up well as a team going forward.”

Binghamton continues its fall season this coming Friday, when it heads up to West Point for the Eastern Collegiate Championships.