Seton Hall University
Day One
Tennis Earns Four Semifinal Berths at NJIT
1/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
NEWARK, N.J. - The Seton Hall women's tennis team made its mark on the opening day of the spring season; earning semifinal appearances in three of the four flights of competition on day one of the NJIT Tournament on Saturday.
The schedule for the first of two days at the event hosted by the Highlanders included two rounds in the lone doubles bracket as well as a single round of action in each of three singles flights.
The Pirates powered their way to two of the four available spots in the semis of the top singles flight as junior Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) and freshman Luize Liva Strike (Riga, Latvia) each moved to within one match of the final with impressive victories.
Drawn against Fordham standout Sarah Ali who already had a qualifying singles victory under her belt, Liljekvist shook off any rust associated with a layoff of over two months to erase an early one-set deficit. After dropping the first frame to an in-rhythm Ali, the All-BIG EAST performer rallied to take the second, 6-4 before advancing with a 10-7 win in the tiebreak.
Strike went up against Carolina Zanotta of NJIT in her first match of the competition and made quick work of one of the hosts' top players in a 6-4, 6-3 straight-set triumph.
Should Strike get past Army sophomore Allyson Hayley and Liljekvist stop Marine Dans of LIU-Brooklyn in the final four, the two could potentially face off in an all-Seton Hall title match.
Liljekvist also paired with classmate Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) to record two wins on the doubles court, dropping a total of five games in two convincing performances.
In the first round, the duo needed just two games over the minimum to oust Hayley and her Black Knights teammate Bridget Guenard. While Hayley and Guenard went on to blank their first opponents in the consolation bracket, Liljekvist and Keenan were busy cruising past the mixed team of Fordham's Bella Genkina and Nancy Zonneveld of LIU-Brooklyn (8-3) to earn a date with the Rams' Julie Leong and Estelle Wong for the right to play in Sunday's championship.
Two more victories would give Keenan a doubles trophy at the opening tournament of the spring for the second season in-a-row after she helped capture a B flight crown at Cornell in 2014.
The Hall's other semifinal berth belongs to junior Isabell Klingert (Oberbalbach, Germany) who topped Fordham senior Anna Novacek in the first round of C flight competition; moving on with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
She will meet another Fordham representative in Caroline Sa in the semifinal of the top half of the draw.
Klingert also recorded a main draw doubles victory alongside senior Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) as the two combined to overpower the Blackbirds' tandem of Brittany Thompson and Isabella Wagener in an 8-2 rout. The two would fall short of meeting Liljekvist and Keenan in the semifinals with a loss to Leong and Wong.
The team of Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) and Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) added The Hall's seventh win of opening day; bouncing back to down NJIT's duo of Vujkovac/Rosas, 8-5, in consolation play.
The Pirates will look to capitalize on their four chances to head into the dual match season with some extra hardware as competition continues throughout the day in Newark on Sunday. For updates on the action, follow @SHU_Tennis on Twitter
