The St. John’s women’s tennis team competed in the USTA Billie Jean King Women’s College Invitational in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. on Oct. 8-10.
The Red Storm struggled at the tournament, with no player advancing past the quarterfinals.
Newcomer Lyubov Pogirbnyak led the Red Storm this last weekend, making it to the quarterfinal round of her singles bracket. She opened up by defeating Nuria Vails of St. Francis 6-1, 6-1, but ended up losing 6-1, 6-1 to Charleston Southern’s Susita Das.
Junior Nevena Selakovic fell to Olga Khmylev, the fourth seed out of Boston College, 4-6,4-6 in the second singles flight, but she snagged a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Pui Wing Sher of Seton Hall in the consolation bracket. Similarly, Joanna Zwirbulis lost her opening match in the fourth singles bracket, but defeated Seton Hall’s Rocio Portela 6-4, 6-7(2), 11-9 in her consolation round.
In the world of doubles, Nevena Selakovic and Joanna Zwirbulis opened up with an 8-3 victory over Seton’s Courtney Kilarski and Karina Martinez, fellow Big East rivals. However, they were quickly sent to the consolation draw after falling to Camille Jania and Alex Lehman of Harvard 6-8. They did rebound however, and beat the third- ranked doubles team from Fairfield, consisting of Sharissa Ryan and Monica Yajima, 8-3.
Also in doubles, Pogirbnyak joined Ece Firat for a victory, as they defeated Vails and Jasso of St. Francis 8-2 in their consolation round.
The Johnnies look to turn it around on Nov. 4-6 when they head to Hanover, N.H. for the Big Green Invitational.
