Tennis: WVU Concludes ECAC Army Invitational
September 27, 2009 04:16 PM | General
September 27, 2009
ARMY INVITATIONAL RESULTS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University tennis team completed the ECAC Army Invitational on Saturday evening after putting up a tough fight in both the singles and doubles competitions.
“We didn’t rebound the way we needed to as a team,” says coach Marc Walters. “But some of the girls played tough and took care of business the way that they needed to.”
The doubles competition was fought by flight ‘A’ team senior Stephanie LaFortune and redshirt junior Monique Burton, while freshman Liv Pettersson and sophomore Catie Wickline competed in flight ‘B’.
Both teams suffered a loss in their main flight competitions, but recovered with several big wins in their consolation and back-draw matches.
LaFortune and Burton took first place in the back-draw competition with an 8-1 win against Syracuse in the first round, an injury-based forfeit by Middlebury in the quarterfinals and an 8-1 victory over Fairfield in the semi-finals. The team ended the competition by winning the finals 8-3 over Stony Brook’s Nini Lagvilava and Anna Pieschi.
After three straight wins in the flight ‘B’ doubles consolation, Pettersson and Wickline made it to the finals, where they were defeated in a close 8-6 match against UMass’ Jocelyn Providence and Tanisha Hodgson.
In the flight ‘A’ singles competition, sophomore Kathryn Haught won her first match in a forfeit against Marist’s Maria Eduarda-Vurgel. After a tough loss against UMass’ Magdalena Pioch in her second match, Haught came back with two big wins against Long Island’s Aleksandra Paulovic in an 8-3 match and Niagra’s Hillary Hansen, winning 8-5.
Also highlighting the weekend in the flight ‘B’ competition were junior Ashley Pilsbury who posted a 6-2, 7-5, win over Marist’s Kelsey Raynor, and fresman Emily Mathis who saw a 6-4, 6-3 victory over St. Bonaventure's Kathryn Kvas.
Flight ‘C’ competitor, sophomore Veronica Cardenas also had a good weekend with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat over Long Island’s Linn Siorgen in her first match of the day.
The Mountaineers will continue play Oct. 2-3, at the Queen City Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“It is important for us to come back against Cincinnati,” says Walters. “A few of our top players are going to rest giving some of our bottom players the chance to step up.”
