Women's Tennis Stumbles at Cissie Leary Invitational

PHILADELPHIA, PA (September 24, 2000)- Seton Hall rookie head coach Betsy Somerville Purpura and the youthful women's tennis team experienced championship success last week at the Eastern Collegiate Tennis Tournament, but heightened competition at the Cissie Leary Invitational hosted by the University of Pennsylvania spelled defeat for all of the Pirate competitors.

The Pirates' lone victory came in doubles action as junior Kyli Lassalle (New Iberia, LA) teamed up with freshman Courtney Iseldyke (East Brunswick, NJ) to defeat Catherine Crandall and Arden Fredeking of Dartmouth, 8-1. The Iseldyke / Lassalle connection fell to Jan Perez and Judy Wang of Penn State, 8-4, in the quarterfinals.

Eastern Collegiate Tennis Tournament champions, Nicole Cercone (North Seminole, FL) and Kim Barfuss (Denville, NJ) bowed in both of their first matches. Cercone dropped the first set to Dartmouth's Catherine Cardall, 6-3, but battled back to even the match at one set a piece by winning the second set, 6-3. Cardall then topped Cercone in the third set, 6-1 issuing Cercone her first loss of the season. Barfuss was awarded a bye into the second round were she lost to Justyna Wojas of Pennsylvania, 6-2, 6-1.

The women's tennis team returns to action on Friday, Sept. 29 as they host Columbia in the Pirates' first dual match of the season.