Full Results
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Norfolk State women's tennis team wrapped up play on Saturday during the two-day Bison Invite at Bucknell. It marked the third of five weekends the Spartans will compete this fall.
Juniors
Liza Gordeeva and
Ana Popovic each won twice to highlight singles play for NSU. The team's two doubles tandems each claimed one victory at the invitational held at the Bucknell Tennis Courts.
"The women were able to put together a third straight weekend in which they performed well," said head coach
Worth Richardson. "While we would have liked to pick up a few more wins, we were able to pick up something even more valuable – playing close, pressure-filled matches. The ladies will recover and make some adjustments as we prepare for ITA Regionals and the close of our fall schedule."
On Friday, Popovic earned a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Jasmine Vargas of Niagara before defeating Layafette's Megan Reiling on Saturday. Popovic fell in the first set, 6-3, before rebounding to win 6-3 in the second and 10-5 in the third-set tiebreaker. It was one of five matches NSU competed in at the tournament that went three sets.
She and freshman
Marta Gomar lost in doubles on Friday to Bucknell's Stephanie Pino and Emily Bush, 8-2. The NSU duo swept Jasmin Vargas and Leann Richert of Niagara on Saturday, 8-0, before closing out with an 8-5 loss to Allie Lane and Mel Parks of Bucknell.
Gordeeva lost her opening singles match to Rafaela Panizza of Saint Francis after winning the first set, 6-3. Panizza stormed back to win 6-4 in the second set and 10-5 in the third-set tiebreaker. Gordeeva then earned both of her wins on Saturday, including a close match against Haley Hollins of Niagara. She won the first set, 7-5, but fell to Hollins in the second, 6-4. This time, Gordeeva was able to pull out the third-set tiebreaker victory, 14-12.
Stella Peisakhova of Niagara defeated the NSU junior 6-3 and 6-3 in the final match. Gordeeva also claimed an 8-1 victory with sophomore teammate
Dajana Cvjetkovic in doubles against Raksha Bode and Dani Gryckiewicz of Saint Francis on Friday. Later in the day, the NSU tandem was unable to get past the Bucknell twosome of Lisa Jouravleva and Lauren Fishbein, 8-6.
Cvjetkovic also won in singles on Friday, defeating Caroline Nixon of Lafayette, 6-1 and 6-2. On Saturday, though, Jouravleva came away with a hard-fought victory. She won the first set, 7-5, before Cvjetkovic earned a win in the second, 7-6. Jouravleva won 10-5 in the third set tiebreaker for the win.
In singles, Gomar fell to Brittany Plaazewski of Saint Francis on the first day, 6-3 and 6-3, but rebounded on the second day to defeat Lafayette's Rocine Moschella, 6-1 and 6-2. Michele Urbinati of Bucknell knocked off Gomar in the final match, winning the first set 7-6 and dropping the second by a 6-4 score before taking the third-set tiebreaker over Gomar, 10-6.
The Spartans will next compete at the ITA Regional at Liberty beginning on Oct. 15.
