BROOKVILLE, N.Y. - This fall season, the LIU women's tennis team competed in five invitational events and the ITA Northeast Regional event, in preparation for conference play in the spring. Below is a brief wrap-up of each event and the results.
 
Columbia Invitational (Sep. 17-19)
LIU began its 2021-22 season by going to Queens to participate in the annual Columbia Women's Tennis Invitational at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The event had players representing 12 schools.
 

• The doubles duo of graduate student Valentina Dancenco and senior Sofiya Kuzina had a win over Rhea Shrivistava and Jessie Gong from Yale, 7-6(9). 
• LIU first year Selin Sepken won in the Albany bracket with three consecutive victories. Sepken took the title with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-4 victory over Maryland's Vera Marovic.
• Junior Victoria Erechtchenko also won two singles matches over the event, defeating Cornell's Katherine Nguyen 6-3, 7-5, and NJIT's Sandra Dzhambazov 3-6, 6-1, 10-6.

 
UCONN Invitational (Sep. 24-26)
The LIU women's tennis team competed in and won all three dual matches over the weekend, defeating the University of Rhode Island 4-3, UConn 5-1, and Binghamton 5-1.

• Doubles partners Victoria Erechtchenko and Elinor Storkaas went three-for-three, defeating their challengers Paulina Loredo and Sydney Chratian from URI 6-3, Aleksandra Karamyshev and Isabel Petri-Bere from UCon 7-6(6), and Lara Kaplan and Abby Ackroyd from Boston University 6-4.
• Valentina Dancenco and Sofiya Kuzina won 6-2 over Nadia Raja and Erin Chratian of URI, and 6-2 over Binghamton's Natalie Aruj and Kyra Bergmann.
• LIU also has a strong showing in terms of singles as well, with eight different athletes winning at least one of their respective singles matches over the course of the weekend, including Erechtchenko, Storkaas, Dancenco, Kuzina, Kate Jorjoliani, Bianca Compuesto, Selin Sepken, and Phoebe Watton.

 
ITA Regionals (Oct. 1-3)

• The doubles pairing of Valentina Dancenco and Sofiya Kuzina won their match 8-0, over Lehigh's Ella Imhof and Junmoke James.
• The doubles pairing of Erechtchenko and Storkaas also managed to pull out a victory at the event, defeating Romina Cutipa and Anouk Ma-Ajong of Saint Francis U., 8-2.
• Erechtchenko overpowered Gauri Ghagia of Farleigh Dickinson University, winning 6-0, 6-2
• Sofiya Kuzina battled to outlast Aina Plana Ventosa of Seton Hall, 3-6, 6-0, 10-4.
• Storkaas defeated Hili Kronzon of Seton Hall, 3-6, 6-4, 10-6.

 
Hofstra Invitational (Oct. 9)
Competing in their third invitational of the fall season, and despite rain shortening the event on Sunday, LIU had three athletes win in singles play.

• Kate Jorjoliani defeated Kayla Solagnier of Hofstra with two successive 6-1, 6-1 sets.
• Bianca Compuesto cruised to her own victory over Hofstra's Mandisa Walle, 6-0, 6-3
• Selin Sepken showed resilience and battled it out against Hofstra's Shelly Ray to come back and win 2-6, 6-2, 10-3.

 
Charlotte Invitational (Oct. 8-10)
In a round-robin style three-day tournament, LIU headed to the Queen City and once again had their two doubles duos of Victoria Erechtchenko and Elinor Storkaas and Valentina Dancenco and Sofiya Kuzina each win.

• Erechtchenko and Storkaas took down the Rutgers pairing of Chloe Brown and Tess Fisher, 6-3, while Dancenco and Kuzina defeated and Minchae Kim and Jackeline Lopez 6-3.
• Kuzina went on to win both of her singlesmatches, battling it out in two tie-breaking matches to win over Eloise Saraty of Liberty 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-6, and Kristiana Zahare of Rutgers 7-5, 3-6, 10-7.
• Valentina Dancenco defeated Annie Clark from Virginia Tech 6-4, 6-0.
• Elinor Storkaas took down Bruna Sampaio of Liberty 6-2, 6-3.
• Victoria Erechtchenko battled it out in a 2-6, 6-2, 10-6 comeback win over Chloe Brown from Rutgers.

 
Fordham Invitational (Oct. 23-24)
In two days, LIU had a dominant performance over Fordham University, Providence College and Sacred Heart, with four different doubles teams winning matches.

• Juniors Victoria Erechtchenko and Elinor Storkaas won both of their doubles matchups. They took down two different Fordham teams, winning 6-2 over Valeriya Deminova and Nicole Li, and 6-4 over Avery Aude and Carlota Casasampere.
• Valentina Dancenco and Sofiya Kuzina won a doubles match on Sunday 6-1 over opponents Eleni Fasoula and Rachelle Yang of Fordham.
• Bianca Compuesto and Jasmine Maduel also won their doubles match, and so did teammates Kate Jorjoliani and Selin Sepken.
• In singles play, Dancenco, Kuzina, and Storkaas each won both of their matches, while Erechtchenko, Jorjoliani, Compuesto, junior Phoebe Watton, and Sepken each won one match.