WOMEN'S TENNIS

Roster  |  Coaches  |  Schedule / Results  |  News

Novaceanu Opens Season With Cornell Title

Sophomore Andreea Novaceanu (Bucharest, Romania/Emil Racovita) rolled to a straight sets victory on Sunday to claim the A singles title at the Cornell Invitational in Ithaca.

Andreea Novaceanu

Novaceanu downed Cornell's Tamara John, 6-4, 6-2, on Sunday to take the title, her third singles crown of her career. Last season's Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year won tournament titles at Bowling Green and Dartmouth last fall. Novaceanu needed a super-tiebreaker to advance into the final. Earlier in the day, she held on to defeat Cornell's Kasia Preneta, 6-0, 6-3, (10-6). Novaceanu opened play on Saturday with a win over Rutgers' Alina Balasa, 6-2, 6-3. She also picked up a victory over Army's Amy Morganstern, leading 6-0, 2-0, when Morganstern was forced to retire.

Ortman Falls in B Final After Three Wins

Kristen Ortman

Senior Kristen Ortman (Amherst, NY/Amherst) also reached the championship finals in the B bracket, facing Cornell opponents in all four of her matches. Ortman opened play on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Liying Wang and then dumped Ashley Ebbert, 6-4, 6-1, to reach Sunday's semifinals. In the semifinals, Ortman needed a first-set tiebreaker to defeat Dana Cruite, 7-6 (2), 6-3. Ortman's run was stopped on Sunday afternoon by Catherine Duboc, falling to her Cornell opponent, 7-5, 6-2.

Doubles Squads Reach Semifinals

Two UB doubles tandems reached the semifinals before being eliminated. Novaceanu and Natalie Dean (Fielding, New Zealand/Delta State) earned a first-round bye and then downed Army's Morganstern and Brooke Jones, 8-6. The UB pair fell to Elizabeth Googe and Shayna Miller of Cornell in the semifinals, 9-7. The UB tandem of Ortman and Miglena Nenova (Rousse, Bulgaria/Eurointellect) scored two doubles victories, defeating Kate Houghton and Bridie Burke of Army, 8-2, in the first round and Cameron Thaney and Lindsey Smith of Colgate, 8-2, in the second round. The UB team was eliminated by Army's Christine Ong and Jessica Shurtz, 8-3, in the semifinals.

Bowling Green Invitational on Tap for Bulls

The Bulls travel to the Bowling Green Invitational, September 24 and 25, for their next action. Novaceanu won the first flight singles title at last year's tournament and combined with Tina Jacob (Singapore/Raffles JC) to claim the second doubles flight. Katrin Fischer (Ternitz, Austria/Borg) reached the championship match of the singles third flight, dropping a tough match to her opponent from Xavier.