Popescu and Harijanto Win Quarterfinal Match

Diana Popescu

PHILADELPHIA, PA – University at Buffalo women’s tennis doubles tandem Diana Popescu (Alexandria, Romania/AL. I. Cuza) and Denise Harijanto (Jakarta, Indonesia) scored a quarterfinal victory on Monday, but were eliminated in the semifinals, one match short of reaching the finals at the ITA East Regional Championships.

Popescu and Harijanto defeated sister combination Bianca and Carissa Aboubakare of Brown in their first match of the day. The UB duo scored an 8-6 victory for their fourth-straight win and their third over a seeded opponent. The Aboubakare sisters were seeded fifth. Popescu and Harijanto also defeated the fourth-seed, Ekaterina Kosminskaya and Alexa Ely of Penn and one of the tournaments eight ninth seeds, Erin Clark and Pamela Duran of Richmond.

Denise Harijanto

The UB duo’s luck ran out in the semifinal round as they were defeated by Virginia’s Jennifer Stevens and Emily Fraser, 8-3. Stevens and Fraser were seeded eighth and will face seventh-seeded Charleen Haarhouf and Nadine Fahoum of Old Dominion in Tuesday’s championship match.

Harijanto turned out to be UB’s top player for the duration of the tournament. After winning a spot in the singles main draw with a pair of wins in qualifying action, Harijanto reached the third round of singles play before falling to Stevens. Harijanto went a combined 8-2 between singles and doubles action at the tournament.

The ITA Championships concludes UB’s fall schedule. The Bulls open dual meet play on Saturday, January 31 at Brown.