Competing against 20 of the nation’s top tennis squads, the Boston University women’s tennis team advanced as far as the quarterfinals in doubles play and the semifinals in singles action at the National Tennis Center College Invitational last weekend.
BU, Boston College, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers University were among the teams competing at the site of the US Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
“The girls went against many strong teams this weekend,” said BU coach Lesley Sheehan. “The [local] teams are very competitive, but we also went against North Carolina State University and Washington State University. Those teams were outside of the region, but altogether, they created good competition for the players.”
Sophomore Francine Whu split her singles matches in Flight A, while freshman Vanessa Steiner went 1-3.
Whu and Steiner also had a strong weekend in Flight A Doubles. Their 8-5 wins against Harvard University and UPenn brought them to the quarterfinals before losing to Yale University’s Lindsey Clark and Lauren Ritz, 8-3.
In Flight B doubles, sophomore Elizabeth Corrao and junior Yana Sadovskaya made it to the semifinals by notching three consecutive wins over opponents from Washington State University, Pennsylvania State University and Princeton University, 8-2, 8-2, 9-8, respectively. Their only loss of the weekend came to St. Johns University, 8-6.
“Our doubles team did better than I expected,” Sheehan said. “They did better than before in previous tournaments and we can see the improvement in most of our doubles matches.”
The Terrier men’s team did not fare as well this weekend at the Boston College Invitational in Chestnut Hill, Mass, losing 6-1 to the Eagles.
At the No. 1 singles position, BU junior Miron Nissim lost to senior Jason Sechrist, 2-6, 3-6. Sechrist picked up a win against BU senior Giulio Gallorotti, 2-6, 5-7, at the No. 4 singles position. In doubles, Sechrist and Kreutzer paired up to win their match against sophomore Jeff Chudacoff and Gallorotti, 0-8.
The women’s team’s next event is the Intercollegiate Tennis Association meet in Norfolk, Va. on Oct. 19-23, while the men will compete in the Quinnipiac Tournament from Oct. 12-14.