Bulls Advance Pair to Singles Finals at Fall MAC Invite

Smaranda Stan

KALAMAZOO, MI – The University at Buffalo women's tennis team continued play Saturday at the Fall Mid-American Conference Invitational by advancing two players to singles championship final matches. There is no team scoring at the meet, which includes all eight women's tennis members of the MAC.

Smaranda Stan (Stantu Gheorge, Romania/Economic) and Denise Harijanto (Jakarta, Indonesia) each won their semifinal matches in their respective flights to advance to Sunday's championship matches.

Stan, playing in flight two, defeated Lilian Asuaje of Northern Illinois in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. Stan will face Western Michigan's Amanda Moccia in Sunday's final. Moccia defeated Bowling Green's Kelsey Jakupin, 6-2, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Denise Harijanto

In flight three, Harijanto rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Samantha Kintzel of Bowling Green for her second win of the tournament. Harijanto will meet Rachel Denny of Western Michigan in Sunday's final after Denny needed three sets to defeat Maha Guirguis of Toledo, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-2.

Four other UB singles players fell in semifinal matches on Saturday.

In flight one, Diana Popescu (Alexandria, Romania/AL. I. Cuza) was defeated by Western Michigan's Kerstin Pahl in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. In flight four, Diana Toia (Rochester, NY/Brighton) fell to Bowling Green's Katia Babina in a tight match, 7-5, 7-6 (2). In flight five, Aleksandra Petrova (Sofia, Bulgaria/Logos International) lost to Toledo's Jenny Belsky, 6-4, 6-2. Anna Subenkova (Riga, Latvia) was defeated in flight six by Bowling Green's Stefanie Menoff, 6-2, 6-1. All four Bulls will play in third-place matches on Sunday.

UB's lone doubles team to advance into the Saturday's semifinals, Harijanto and Popescu, were defeated by Toledo's Martina Wodzinski and Guirguis, 8-0, in flight one.

The tournament concludes Sunday.