Seton Hall University
West Point Invitational
Liljekvist Reaches Finals on Final Day at West Point
9/30/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 30, 2013
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Seton Hall sophomore Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) advanced all the way to the final of the top singles bracket at the West Point Invitational on Sunday, punctuating a successful three-day trip to the United States Military Academy that included 24 total wins for the Pirates.
Playing in just her second tournament for The Hall, Liljekvist dropped only one set in three victories leading up to the final day of competition. In the semifinals, she easily dispatched Sophie Dzulynsky of Quinnipiac with a commanding 6-1, 6-3 victory to reach the title match.
With the championship on the line, the Saint Mary's (CA) transfer was matched up with top-seeded Alexis Casati of Illinois, the fourth-ranked team in the Midwest according to the latest ITA regional rankings. Casati, who did not lose more than three games in any set over the weekend, ultimately came away with a 6-2, 6-3 win.
Liljekvist had previously defeated the #2 seed Srna Stosljevic (UConn) and became the second Pirate in as many tournaments to reach a singles final after classmate Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) did so in the B flight at the Quinnipiac Invitational to open the season.
At West Point, Keenan was eliminated in the 2nd singles round-of-16 but bounced back to post victories in her two matches in the back draw, closing her tournament by downing the Black Knights' Margaret Iliev on her home court.
Junior Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) was also in action in the 4th singles main draw on Sunday after recording three wins of her own but fell in the semifinals to Army's Kelly Daniel on Sunday morning.
SHU's four other singles victories came from a combination of four players as Alex Landert (Naples, Fla.) (4th), Rocio Portela (Demetrio Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) (2nd) and Chloe Sher (Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong) (1st) all scored main draw victories while junior Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) picked up a win in the 3rd singles back draw.
In doubles, Seton Hall had two teams reach main draw quarterfinals as Portela and Sher recorded two victories in the A doubles main draw while Keenan and freshman Julie Martiny (Brussels, Belgium) came out on top in their first two B doubles matches to reach the round of eight.
After reaching the A flight finals in their first tournament as a team two weeks ago at Quinnipiac, Liljekvist and Shoemaker were edged in their first A doubles match, 7-8 (4), by Angie Dabu and Julie Leong of Fordham but responded by adding a win in their only back draw appearance.
The Pirate pair with the most wins over the weekend was the duo of Guryanova and Landert who after slipping into the B doubles back draw, combined to put together a string of four consecutive wins while dropping a total of six games in the process. In the back draw final, the SHU tandem took down Shea Flanagan and Jen Learmonth of UConn, 8-3, to wrap up their trip to West Point.
The Pirates will shift gears this weekend when they travel to the Bronx on Sunday, October 6 to take on Fordham in their first dual match of 2013. Start-time is scheduled for Noon.
