The St. John’s women’s tennis team traveled to Lewisburg, Penn. over the weekend to compete in the Bucknell Invitational tournament.
After the first round on Friday, the Red Storm advanced five members into singles flights and one pair into doubles.
At the closing of the tournament, they walked away with three first-place victories.
“We had a great tournament,” St. John’s coach Allison Davidson said. “There was some tough competition and each girl played about nine matches over the weekend. But they played tough the whole time. It was very impressive. Our attitude was very professional.”
The first day of the tournament showcased Nataly Tumsevica (Flight A), Barbora Blahutiakova (Flight A), Mariana Chachua (Flight B), Alison Adamski (Flight B) and Lauren Lorenzetti (Flight C) all advancing into the second round of singles.
In addition, Blahutiakova and Chachua combined to defeat a pair from Colgate 8-1 in Flight A doubles competition.
Ashley Harper and Lorenzetti fell to a twosome from Binghamton in Flight B doubles competition.
Blahutiakova and Chachua defeated Army’s Christine Ong and Jessica Schurtz to advance to the doubles finals.
They finished second overall to Megan Noble and Brook Jones, also of Army.
In Flight B doubles, Adamski and Tumsevica topped Binghamton’s duo of Nicole Scarangella and Gayathri Balasundar 8-1 to take first place. Harper and Lorenzetti finished ninth overall.
In singles, Blahutiakova topped Cornell’s Tamara John 6-4, 6-2 to earn a spot in the finals while Tumsevica defeated Binghamton’s Zeynep Altinay 6-0, 6-2 for her spot.
Blahutiakova finished the finals 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-5 to earn a first-place victory while Tumsevica placed right behind her to give SJU the top two spots in Flight A singles standings.
In Flight B singles, Chachua and Adamski also both advanced to their finals.
Facing off against each other for first place, Chachua took the crown, winning the match 6-1, 1-6, 10-8. Adamski finished second, giving the Red Storm first and second place in both the Flight A and B divisions.
“It was great,” Davidson said. “I just let them go at it.”
Flight C singles showed Lorenzetti defeating Liz Dobbs of Connecticut 8-3 for a fifth place finish and, in Flight D singles, Gabija Gasiunaite finished second to Ashley Petruzzi of Connecticut.
Davidson was very pleased with the results of the tournament.
“[I] couldn’t [have] expected better,” Davidson said. “We had five girls in the finals and basically dominated.”
The team goes to West Point next weekend for the ICA Tournament.
Tumsevica and Blahutiakova will play in singles and as a team in doubles along with Adamski/Chachua.
