LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Norfolk State women's tennis team opened its 2012 fall season at the Liberty Classic this weekend and recorded a pair of wins over Virginia Tech opponents.
Sophomore Kia Batiste and junior Maryna Kariuk lost to Longwood's Malin Allgurin and Sarah Moomau, 8-1, in the Flight 2 doubles opening round. They defeated Virginia Tech's Frances Peyton and Laura Ramthun in the consolation match 8-2, before falling to Appalachian State's Clare Cox and Mackenzie Lasure, 8-2, in the final round of the consolation bracket.
Sophomore Laura Gutierrez and freshman Andrea Macchiavello fell to Valerie Thong and Brittany Yang of Liberty, 8-4, in Doubles Flight 1. They also lost to Radford's Taylor Newman and Gemma Valls, 8-2, in the Flight 1 consolation bracket.
Senior Rebecca Graff competed with Megan Douglas of James Madison in Flight 3 of the doubles bracket. They defeated Cora Berna and Amber Schneider of West Virginia State, 8-4, before losing to Liberty's Jessie Boda and Cameron Richard, 8-2. Graff and Douglas also lost 8-5 to Hannah Hill and Nicole Parker of Longwood.
Graff had a mixed weekend in Flight 6 of the singles matches, as she fell to Longwood's Nicole Parker, 6-4, 6-0, before rebounding to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Virginia Tech's Ramthun. Graff lost to Ruxandra Andriescu of James Madison 6-0, 6-0 in the final round of the consolation bracket.
Gutierrez competed in Flight 1 of the singles bracket where she lost to Marta Pinyol of Longwood 6-7, 5-0, 1-0, as well as Taylor Pinchoff of James Madison, 6-1, 6-0.
Macchiavello lost to James Madison's Jacqueline Palmucci 6-4, 6-2, and Liberty's Alexandra Sheeran, 6-0, 3-6, 1-0, in Flight 2 of the singles competition.
Kariuk competed in Flight 5 of the singles bracket where she suffered a 6-3, 6-0 loss to James Madison's Cara Wirth as well as a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Liberty's Brittany Yang.
Batiste lost to Taylor Fay of Radford 6-3, 6-3 and Christopher Newport's Kim Morrissett 6-4, 6-4.
The Spartans will travel to Farmville, Va., for the Longwood Classic on Sept. 28-30th.
