Women’s Tennis Opens Season at Top of the Draw

In their first action since the fall season, the women’s tennis team burned up the courts at the Reis Tennis Center this past weekend. Although the Red hosted Binghamton, Niagara, Temple, Army, and UMBC at the pre-season Winter Invitational, Cornell stood out in the limelight as seven of the eight players participating reached at least the semifinals during the event.
[img_assist|nid=34680|title=Eye on the prize|desc=The women’s tennis team had a strong showing in their pre-season Winter Invitational against Binghamton, Niagra, Temple, Army and UMBC. The team finished on top, with 7 players making the semifinals of the event. The team also took the doubles draw by s|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
Freshman Stephanie Kent overwhelmed her older opposition, and captured the “A” singles title in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5, over sophomore Stangl of Temple, who had knocked out junior Natalia Sanchez in the previous round. In Flight B singles, senior captain Shayna Miller made it to the third round and unfortunately lost to junior Rukavyshnykova of Temple. Sophomore Leah Seyburn captured the Flight C consolation title, 6-4, 6-1, over freshman Sherlin of Binghamton.
The doubles teams put up an excellent showing as facing off in the Flight A Doubles finals match, will be two Cornellian pairs: Miller and senior Elizabeth Googe versus Kent and Sanchez. In Flight B, sophomore Ruxandra Dumitrescu and senior Catherine Doboc fell just short of the victory to sophomore Pazderova and sophomore Bergman of Temple in the finals, 8-3.
“It was a great tournament and it shows that we’re well prepared for the season. We’re on the right track”, said junior Natalia Sanchez.
After a stellar performance at the Winter Invitational, the Red will open its spring duals season home on February 7th against Sienna College.