Seton Hall University
USTA Collegiate Invitationl
WTEN Completes Day 1 at USTA Event
10/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Competition on day one featured two rounds of singles in nine separate flights, and one round of doubles in five different draws.
An area of focus entering the weekend according to head coach Greg Wyzykowski, the Seton Hall doubles teams took on their first tests.
Squaring off with familiar foes, juniors Rocio Portela (Demetrio Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) and Chloe Sher (Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong) eased into the quarterfinals of doubles bracket #2 with an 8-2 win over the Providence duo of Maria Clara Bernardez and Marisela Aviles-Duron.
Also advancing was the team of Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) and Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia). The two underclassmen paired to earn a final-eight spot in the #4 doubles bracket, ousting the Brown University tandem of Coco Hsu and Nikita Uberoi, 9-7.
Karina Cordero (Maracay Estado Aragua, Venezuela) and partner Alex Landert (Naples, Fla.) dropped a hard-fought match with Natalia Melibeu and Carolina Zanotta of NJIT, 6-8.
After day one in singles competition, sophomore Maria Rodriguez (Bogota, Columbia) remains in contention for an I flight championship after picking up two straight-set wins. Rodriguez overpowered both of her first two opponents, dropping a total of just six games. In her first match, the Bogota native cruised past a BIG EAST foe in St. John's senior Terri Thomas, winning 6-2, 6-2. Rodriguez was even more dominant in her quarterfinal matchup with Haley O'Connor of reigning Patriot League champion Army, capturing a 6-1, 6-1 victory. She will face Fairleigh Dickinson's Nicole Chris in the semifinals.
The third-set tiebreak proved unkind to the Pirates on the opening day of competition, as four team members fell in the decisive frame.
Going up against the #1 seed in the tournament in the opening round of A flight matches, Sher battled back to stretch Princeton's Lindsey Graff to the limit. After Graff swept the first set, Sher responded by posting a 7-5 second set victory. Graff found the edge in the third set as the 118th ranked player in the nation denied Sher's upset bid with a 6-0, 5-7, 10-3 win.
In her second match of the day Sher went on to defeat Vanessa Petrini, Rutgers top player, in another three-set marathon (6-3, 5-7, 11-9).
In F flight competition, freshman Alex Landert jumped out to a one-set lead over another Princeton Tiger, Joan Cannon. Cannon took the second set 6-4 and prevailed in the tiebreak to register a 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 victory. Fellow freshman Julia Keenan suffered a similar fate in G flight action, falling despite winning the first set in her match as well. Keenan put FDU's Egzona Morina in an early hole with a 6-4 first set victory, but fell 3-6, 5-10 in the next two.
Like Sher, Keenan bounced back to come out on top in her second match of the day. The freshman from New Hampshire outlasted Alex Tashiro of Binghamton, 6-2, 1-6, 10-7 to pick up her eighth singles win of the fall.
In the H flight, sophomore Madison Shoemaker fell behind LIU sophomore Nancy Zonneveld after losing the first set, 4-6. Shoemaker rallied to take the second set 6-4 but fell just short in a heated tiebreak, losing 8-10.
In her second match, Shoemaker became the third Pirate on the day to avenge a three-set loss by following with a three-set victory. Against NJIT's Carolina Zanotta, Shoemaker displayed resiliency in a 7-5, 1-6, 10-3 triumph.
Sophomore Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) also rebounded from an opening round main draw loss to close her day with a victory. In her first outing since capturing her first career singles title at the Bill and Sandra Moore Invitational, Guryanova breezed past Laura Husband of St. Francis (6-1, 6-0) to close her day with a 1-1 mark.
Senior Karina Cordero and Rocio Portela were also in action for the Pirates, but fell in straight sets.
Play will resume tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 7 on the second of three scheduled competition days.
