Despite rain delays and changes of venue, the Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis teams got the fall season underway over the weekend, competing in three tournaments across the northeast.
Both teams saw some success and will use these performances as jumping off points for the rest of the year.
At the Towson University 4+1 Invitational, the women’s tennis team was forced to complete all play on Sunday after Friday and Saturday’s matches were postponed due to Hurricane Ivan. Split into two teams, the women finished second and third in the condensed tournament.
Play got underway early on Sunday morning, with the first match beginning at 9 a.m. Georgetown’s No. 2 team took on Monmouth and defeated them 5-0. Senior Liddy Bartell, freshman Stephanie Cohen and sophomores Sana Malouf and Nora Gardner all won their singles matches and freshman Elizabeth Winokur, with a partner from Towson University, won her doubles match to sweep the Hawks.
Georgetown’s No. 1 team saw their first action later in the morning but did not fare as well as their teammates. Taking on Delaware, the Hoyas were swept in their matches 5-0. Freshman Adriann Gin, junior Kristen Dew, sophomore Eileen Boyle and junior ichelle DiCocco all fell in their singles matches while the pair of senior Liora Gelblum and freshman Madeleine Long dropped their doubles match.
Losing would not become a familiar feeling for the Hoyas, who only lost one other match during the rest of the tournament.
The No. 2 team faced Towson next, defeating them solidly 4-0. Cohen and Malouf again won their singles matches, with Winokur winning her first singles match and Bartell and Gardner teaming up to win the doubles match.
Georgetown’s No. 1 team took the court next, rebounding from their morning shutout to defeat Loyola 4-1 in their first match of the afternoon. Gelblum, Ginn, Dew and Long all won their singles matches, with the Hoyas surrendering their only point in a long doubles match. Boyle and DiCocco were defeated by Loyola sophomore Laura Cuti and junior Caitlin LaRocco 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.
In their final contest of the day, the Hoyas’ No. 2 team sealed their second place finish with a 5-0 win over Loyola to go undefeated in the tournament. Bartell, Cohen, Winokur and Gardner all took singles victories and Malouf, again playing with a teammate from Towson, won a long doubles match, 6-2, 7-5, for her final victory of the day.
Closing out a long day, the Georgetown No. 1 team topped onmouth 5-0 to take third place. Gelblum, Long, Boyle and DiCocco each won their singles matches and the team of Dew and Gin won their doubles match for the closing victory.
Although the Hoyas put up a strong performance in their first action of the year, the women already have new goals for themselves.
“The women returned with some very definite short-term goals,” Head Coach Rich Bausch said. “That usually only happens when you lose . They are very objective about their short-term goals.”
Delaware took first place in the tournament ahead of the Hoyas, while Loyola and Monmouth took fifth and sixth.
Next weekend the Hoya women will head to two different tournaments. Gelblum, Bartell, Cohen and Gin will be competing at the Maryland Invitational while the rest of the team will be at home on McDonough Courts playing in the D.C. Metropolitan Championships.
While the women will be split up next weekend, the men’s team was split this past weekend. Georgetown’s freshmen competed in the ECAC North Open Championships at Vasser College in N.Y. while the returning players competed at the ECAC South Open at the Mercer County Tennis Center in Trenton, N.J.
At Vasser, the Georgetown freshmen put in a strong showing their first collegiate competition. With rain from Hurricane Ivan disrupting their play as well, the men used indoor courts in order to get all their matches in on the weekend.
Jad Doyle, playing No. 4 singles for the Hoyas, earned an ECAC Finalist Medal for advancing to the finals of his heat. Doyle defeated senior John Liszewski of Vassar and junior Kolby Loft to advance to the finals before losing to freshman Geoff Schwartz of Amherst in the final 6-2, 6-4.
Georgetown freshmen teammates Etienne Paris, Ted Tywang, Andy Clayton and Faris Abinader each also had a victory on the weekend, helping Georgetown take fourth overall at the tournament. Amherst finished first at the tournament, followed by Salve Regina in second and New York University in third.
“I was pretty happy with their results in their first collegiate action,” Bausch said. “The only negative was that there were three NCAA Division III teams that finished ahead of us . [but] I know we lost to quality players and I was happy with our play.”
At the ECAC South Open in N.J., the veteran Hoya men were able to claim a second place finish, led by sophomore Kevin Killeavy, who won the No. 2 singles Championship.
Killeavy won three matches to take the title, defeating freshman Stephen Arlt of New Jersey Tech, freshman Kirill Azovtsev of Concordia and sophomore Gustavo Sanchez of Dowling.
“The title was a great accomplishment because it all happened in one day,” Bausch said, highlighting the fact that Killeavy was forced to play all three matches in one afternoon because rain had forced the postponement of Saturday’s play. Killeavy also had to fight off cramping late in the day to win the final.
Sophomore Eric Conrad and senior Erik Bildman also advanced to the finals of their singles seedings, but each fell in the championships. Conrad lost to freshman Jose Gomez of Dowling 6-4, 6-4, while Bildman fell 6-3, 7-6(4) to sophomore Willem Van Rensburg of Dowling.
Although the Hoyas finished second in the 11-team tournament, Bausch was not satisfied with his team’s play.
“I don’t think where we finished is a full measure of our team,” he said. “I don’t think it’s an accurate gauge of where we are or where we will be.”
Dowling won the tournament with 16 points and Loyola finished in third behind the Hoyas with 10.5 points.
The men will play at home this weekend in the D.C. Metro Championships. Play begins on Friday.