After an impressive stretch of dominance at the hosted UConn Invitational, the University of Connecticut women’s tennis team traveled to West Point, NY, where they competed alongside 18 other teams in the Army Invitational. There was no team scoring, but as singles and doubles, the Huskies went 13-10 in their matches.
Because of the sheer size of the tournament, West Point split up all 144 singles participants into five different flights, with 32 in each but the last one (which had 16). For doubles, there were two flights, with Flight A containing 36 teams and Flight B consisting of 34 teams.
In the top flight of the singles tournament, UConn had two competitors: sophomores Maria Constantinou and Olivia Wright. Wright fell to Shiori Ito of Syracuse and Jane Bockman of Marist in the round of 32 and the consolation bracket, respectively. Constantinou found some success in the round of 32, winning her first match before falling via sweep to Lan Mi of Cornell.
In singles Flight B, both Aleksandra Karamyshev and Isabel Petri Bere won their first round matchups, but fell in a hard-fought round of 16 sets.
Nansi Toskova was a fierce competitor for UConn in Flight C, winning her first two single matches to advance to the quarterfinals. She lost in two straight sets to Julia Kelly of the hometown Army team, 7-5 and 6-4 in a highly-contested bout.
While falling in her first round matchup against the eventual Flight D victor, freshman Cameron Didion hit the ground running in the consolation bracket, winning her next four matches en route to the Flight D Consolation crown, beating competitors from the likes of Quinnipiac, Seton Hall and Sacred Heart. Over that span, Didion outmatched her opposition 24-7. Her efforts over the weekend gives the team and UConn Director of Tennis Glenn Marshall plenty to be excited about in the future.
Also competing in Flight D was senior Denise Lai, who picked up a win in her consolation bracket before falling to Jordan Bradley of Quinnipiac 8-5.[Text Wrapping Break]
In the doubles flights, Connecticut sent three squads – Karamyshev/Constantinou and Wright/Petri Bere in Flight A, and Toskova/Lai in Flight B. Wright and Petri Bere drew a tough first matchup, falling to the Syracuse duo of Ito/Zeynep Erman after a tiebreaker, 7-6. Karamyshev and Constantinou saw some success, winning their first two rounds to advance to the quarterfinals. Their run came to an end there, falling to Maria Ines Fonte and Viktoriya Kanapatskaya of Syracuse.
In Flight B of the doubles tournament, Toskova and Lai managed to squeeze out a 7-5 victory over Chloe Floyd and Taylor Gould of Villanova, but then fell to Pauline Feoli and Elizabeth Gilbert of Army in the round of 16.
“Overall, we had a record of 13-10 in our matches played,” said Marshall. “Against this level of quality competition, I am pleased with our results. Our doubles team of Karamyshev and Constantinou won two rounds in doubles to advance to the quarterfinals. They came within two points of beating the No. 1 seeded team from Syracuse.”
All in all, it was a successful weekend for the Huskies, who got experience in a highly competitive field of a wide variety of teams. They look to pick up where they left off next weekend, as they travel to the ITA Regional Championship at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. Matches will take place Thursday through Sunday.
