Seton Hall University
West Point Invitational
Tennis Wraps up Impressive Weekend at West Point
9/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Seton Hall women's tennis team wrapped up a successful weekend at the West Point Invitational on Sunday, one that featured 10 main draw singles victories and was highlighted by a semifinal run from junior Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.).
Keenan, who has won nearly 68 percent of her singles matches in tournament play while at Seton Hall, secured three more individual victories to earn a berth in the final four of the of the 3rd singles flight.
In the first round, the Greenland native dropped just four games in a dominant straight-set performance against Victoria Falk of hosts Army. Up against Shreya Pasricha of Fairleigh Dickinson in the round of 16, Keenan was scored an even more emphatic 6-2, 6-0 win.
Faced with a quarterfinal matchup with Brittany Collens of Massachusetts in a meeting of players who had yet to lose a set, Keenan rallied back from a one-set deficit to move into the semifinals with a 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 triumph.
Only eventual flight champion Komal Safdar of Syracuse was able to stop Keenan's run as though the Seton Hall junior once again battled back to force a third set, Safdar prevailed 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.
Newcomers Luize Liva Strike (Riga, Latvia) and Isabell Klingert (Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany) also added quarterfinal appearances of their own, picking up two victories apiece.
Strike, who advanced to the quarterfinals in her collegiate debut at the Quinnipiac Invitational, downed Claire Schmitz of Marist in the first round to move into the final 16 of the top singles flight. The freshman then erased a one-set lead for LIU-Brooklyn's Sanne Louwers, taking the final two, 6-2, 10-8.
Top-seeded Kristina Vozniak of Stony Brook upended Strike in the quarterfinal round, but the Latvian product has now recorded three wins in her first two appearances for The Hall.
Klingert has posted four victories in the first two competitions of her Seton Hall career, adding two more over the weekend in the 4th singles flight. Klingert battled back to oust Chassidy King of SUNY-Albany, 4-6, 6-1, 10-2 before topping UMass standout Isabel Balsavage 6-3, 6-2 to earn a spot in the final eight. Once again, it took the eventual flight champion to stop the Seton Hall charge as Nicole Mitchell of Syracuse ousted Klingert on her way to the title.
Three more Pirates added main draw wins as Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden), Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) all advanced to the round of 16 in their respective flights.
Liljekvist did so in the top singles flight, besting Mara Martinez-Santori of Saint Bonaventure, 6-1, 6-2. Coming off an unbeaten showing at the Quinnipiac Invitational in her first collegiate tournament, Kim registered another victory with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Brezzy Maravich of Lehigh.
Liljekvist and Keenan also accounted for the squad's top doubles performance of the weekend, advancing their way to the 1st doubles quarterfinal with triumphs over Maravich and her teammate Jessica Graham as well as the Albany pair of Dajana Ognjenovic and Kirsten Scott, 8-7 (4).
In her first match of the new season, Shoemaker yielded just three games in a convincing victory over Marist's Elizabeth Brozovich.
Senior Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) made it all seven Pirates with a victory when she defeated Anika Novacek of Fordham in the 3rd singles flight consolation bracket.
Guryanova and Klingert also scored a win on the doubles court, downing Nicole Keklik and Daniella Reyes of Quinnipiac (8-5) in the 2nd flight.
Through two tournaments the Pirates have totaled 23 singles victories and boast a collective .639 winning percentage.
The squad will be off from competition next weekend before traveling to Annapolis, Md. for the Blue & Gold Invitational on Friday, October 10 to begin another three-day tournament.
