Stan, Harijanto Win Qualifying Matches at ITA Regionals

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Two University at Buffalo women's tennis players won their singles qualifying matches to advance into the main draw of the ITA East Region Championships hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.

Smaranda Stan

Senior Smaranda Stan (Stantu Gheorge, Bulgaria/Economic) and junior Denise Harijanto (Jakarta, Indonesia) won two matches apiece and will now compete in the main singles draw which starts Saturday. They join sophomore teammate Diana Popescu (Alexandria, Romania/AL. I. Cuza) who did not play in the qualifying matches. Eight players advanced out of the qualifying rounds and were placed in the main draw.

Stan, seeded first among the 32 entrants, scored a straight-sets win over Maryland's Oksana Krutiyenko, 6-3, 6-1, to move into the second round. In the second round, Stan defeated Dartmouth's Ryan Reichel, 6-1, 6-0 to earn a spot in the main draw.

Denise Harijanto

Harijanto also won both her matches in straight sets with 6-0 wins in the second set of both contests. In her early match, she downed Boston College's Alina Sullivan, 6-1, 6-0. Harijanto then advanced past Richmond's Joanna Matuszczyk, 7-5, 6-0 to reach the main draw.

In Saturday's round of 128, Stan will meet Manuelo Marin-Salcedo of St. Bonaventure while Harijanto will meet Julia Prantel of Fairleigh Dickinson. Popescu opens play against Lauren Bates of Binghamton in the first round.

Harijanto and Popescu will comprise UB's lone doubles entry. The duo takes on Ana Mungo and Alice Chen of UMBC in the first round of doubles competition.

Competition continues through Tuesday.