Results

NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Long Island University women's tennis team competed in the Columbia Invitational this weekend, and had an overall strong, competitive showing against their opponents.
 
"Overall I am very happy with the team's performance this weekend," said head coach Jan Griga. "It was a strong start to our fall season, and while a lot of work certainly lays ahead of us, all of the players showed impressive signs this weekend, making for what could be a very exciting year."
 
All of the Sharks' doubles teams played very well. Sofiya Kuzina/ Valentina Dancenco won their consolation draw 6-1 against Genkova/Ordonez from St. John's on Saturday and defeated NJIT's Dhar/Saravanan 6-1 on Sunday. The duo of Victoria Erechtchenko/ Veronika Koudelkova also won their back draw, defeating NJIT's Budiman/Omar 6-2 on Saturday and Hofstra's Dolabany/Stork 6-3 on Sunday.
 
Ekaterine Jorjoliani/ Pheobe Watton defeated their consolation draw opponents Massa/Downer (Fordham/St. John's), 6-1 on Saturday followed with a 6-4 victory over Colgate's Untermeyer/Simik on Sunday. Elinor Storkaas/ Bianca Compuesto played a tough opening draw match despite falling 6-7 to NJIT's Bouzgarrou/Matson.
 
Freshman Phoebe Watton won her first round opening match over Hofstra's Mandisa Walle 6-3, 6-3 on Friday and beat Jenelle Downer of St. John's 6-4, 6-2 in the second round on Saturday. On Sunday, she competed in the Suffolk Draw final but fell to Sophie Raiszadeh from Columbia 0-6, 2-6.
 
Junior Veronika Koudelkova won her first-round match on Friday, taking down Brooklyn Samuels from Hofstra 6-0, 6-2. Despite falling to Sophie Raiszadeh from Columbia 1-6, 0-6 on Saturday, Koudelkova finished third in her respective draw, defeating Jenelle Downer from St. John's 8-3 in an eight-game pro set.
 
Freshman Elinor Storkaas had a tough first round draw, falling against Akanksha Bhan from Columbia, the eventual winner of the singles A flight draw 2-6, 5-7. On Saturday, Strokaas came back from being down a set in her consolation draw, to beat Alejandra Ruffini from Hofstra in the third set 10 point tie-break, 2-6, 6-4, 11-9. Storkaas won again on Sunday, taking down Milka Genkova from St. John's 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 in the consolation final.
 
Freshman Ekaterine Jorjoliani defeated her first-round opponent, Fordham's Rachelle Yang, 6-3, 6-4 on Friday. On Sunday, Jorjoliani fell in a very competitive match against Harvard's Demi Snyder, 5-7, 3-6.
 
Freshman Sofiya Kuzina put up a tough fight on Friday against one of Columbia's top players, Jennifer Kerr, losing 1-6, 3-6. On Saturday she defeated Colgate's Emma Levenson in the back draw 6-1, 6-1. On Sunday she lost a heartbreaker to NJIT's Holly Matson in the tie break, 6-2, 7-6 (4).
 
Freshman Victoria Erechtchenko fell to Avery Aude from Fordham 1-6, 5-7 but bounced back to overcome her opponent Renee Ren of Columbia 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday and went on to defeat NJIT's Advaita Saravanan on Sunday 6-3, 6-2 to capture the consolation final.
 
Freshman Bianca Compuesto took on a strong opponent, Columbia's Melissa Sakar, in the opening draw on Friday, falling 1-6, 0-6. She played tough against Genevieve Quenville of Fordham in the back-draw before falling in the tie break, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 9-11.
 
The Sharks return to the court in two weeks for the Hofstra Invitational which will be held on September 27-28.