Tennis Heads to West Point Invitational
9/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall women's tennis team kicks off the second of four scheduled fall tournaments today as the Pirates Head to West Point to take on some of the top teams in the region at the West Point Invitational.
The Hall opened the new season with a successful turn at the Quinnipiac Invitational and heads to the United States Military Academy to join a stacked field that includes 20 teams that will represent nine different conferences at the three-day event.
At Quinnipiac, the seven Pirates who competed amassed a combined 13-6 (.684) record on the singles court, with six reaching the quarterfinals of their respective flights and four advancing as far as the semifinals. The highlight of the tournament came in the "B" flight where in their collegiate debuts, freshmen Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Marisa Quevedo (Tyler, Texas) met in the title match.
Quevedo needed just one set over the minimum to dispatch opponents from Navy, Army and Connecticut en route to the final while after cruising in the first round, Kim battled back from a one-set deficit to oust BIG EAST foe Emma Burgess of Providence in the quarterfinals before prevailing in the semifinals as well.
Kim was awarded the victory in the all-Seton Hall championship when her teammate retired due to illness with the match at 5-4 in the first set.
Junior Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) scored two victories to earn a spot in the "C" flight semifinals while junior transfer Isabell Klingert (Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany) dropped just six games in her first two matches for The Hall before coming up short in a bid for the "D" flight final.
2014 All-BIG EAST honoree Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) and freshman Luize Liva Strike (Riga, Latvia) comprised one-fourth of the quarterfinal field in the top singles flight with Strike scoring an impressive 6-2, 6-2 win over the Friars' Alana Prinos in her collegiate debut.
In the "C" flight, senior Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) came out on top in her final two matches of the weekend, leaving Hamden as one of four Pirates to register multiple victories.
Guryanova also contributed to a victory in the premier doubles flight playing alongside Mikaela Carlson of Navy but the top tandem for The Hall in its first outing without all-time doubles wins leaders Chloe Sher and Rocio Portela was that of Keenan and Liljekvist.
The two juniors eliminated pairs from Connecticut and Providence before falling to Dzulynsky and Young of hosts Quinnipiac in the semifinal round.
The West Point Invitational begins today and will carry through the weekend. For updates, follow @SHU_Tennis on Twitter and check back on SHUPirates.com.
