Tennis Opens Spring with NJIT Tournament
1/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The wait is over for the Seton Hall tennis team as the Pirates will return to action this weekend, participating in a five-team tournament hosted by NJIT before embarking a dual match slate that features 19 competition dates over the next three months.
The Pirates will join the host Highlanders along with some familiar foes in Army, Fordham and LIU-Brooklyn. This weekend will provide an opportunity for the squad to return to a competitive environment prior to opening their head-to-head schedule against the Black Knights on the road next Saturday.
Last year, the Pirates opened the spring at the Cornell Invitational, totaling one title and five semifinal appearances across five flights of competition.
Junior Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) was one-half of the championship winning doubles pair in Ithaca last January and will once again play a major role in SHU's singles and doubles efforts in 2015. While Keenan is coming off her third consecutive impressive fall but was far from the only Pirate to excel in the four tournaments that comprised the autumn schedule.
Classmate Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) displayed the same form that helped her earn All-BIG EAST honors a year ago; cementing her place as one of the squad's top singles forces following the departure of former standouts Chloe Sher and Rocio Portela.
Senior Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) continued to steadily contribute on both the singles and doubles courts as well while fellow veteran Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) went into the winter break as one of the team leaders in winning percentage for the fourth season in-a-row.
One of the major storylines for the Pirates however remains the impact of the team's four newcomers and the role that they will play throughout a challenging spring ledger.
Freshman Luize Liva Strike (Riga, Latvia) quickly emerged as a favorite to fill one of the vacated spots atop the Pirates' lineup but classmates Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Marisa Quevedo (Tyler, Texas) proved formidable as well; providing instant upgrades as both individuals and part of an improved doubles contingent.
Junior Isabell Klingert (Oberbalbach, Germany) injected added experience and quality into the middle of the lineup in her first three months as a Pirate after transferring from a Gonzaga program that has developed into a powerhouse on the West Coast; helping to strengthen what figures to be one of the deepest Seton Hall teams in recent memory.
This weekend, the Pirates will get a look at a split Army squad as the Black Knights will send a portion of their 17-member squad to Newark while the rest will head to Lincoln, Neb. for head-to-head meetings with Nebraska and Air Force. At Cornell last season, The Hall racked up a total of nine victories over representatives from Army and Binghamton, the same two teams that will once again await them in West Point in weekend.
LIU-Brooklyn, Fordham and NJIT will all join Army and SHU in competing for the first time since then fall. The Blackbirds return six players from a team that came within one match of an NEC Championship and the corresponding NCAA Tournament berth a year ago while the Pirates will also get another crack at members of a Fordham team that handed them a 5-2 loss in dual match play to close the fall.
Hosts NJIT are coming of an 11-win season in which they too came within one win of appearing in the NCAA Tournament but there will be plenty of familiarity between the Pirates and Highlanders who participated in two of the same tournaments this fall.
While it may be a precursor to the dual match season, this weekend is an important landmark for The Hall as a new look squad looks to affirm roles within the squad heading into the season ahead.
Action from Newark is slated to begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and will continue on Sunday as well. For updates throughout the weekend, follow @SHU_Tennis on Twitter
