Seton Hall University
Vanguard
Pirates Blank Vanguard in Spring Break Finale
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
COSTA MESA, CALIF. - The Seton Hall tennis team closed its spring break trip to California in emphatic fashion on Thursday, blanking hosts Vanguard University in a 9-0 performance that included six straight-set singles victories and three doubles wins in which the Pirates dropped a combined total of six games.
After coming up just short in three consecutive one-point losses including a pair over the two previous days, The Hall (4-7) got over the hump on the final day of the challenging stretch and will head into a week off from competition on a winning note.
Juniors Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) and Isabell Klingert (Oberbalbach, Germany) each earned their second individual victory of the week, as did seniors Anna Guryanova (Moscow, Russia) and Madison Shoemaker (Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia) in the dominant effort.
Freshmen Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Marisa Quevedo (Tyler, Texas) helped complete the sweep with their first singles points of the week and were also part of a doubles showing that included three wins by an aggregate score of 24-6.
As the Pirates' level of play continues to improve on the doubles court, each one of SHU's pairings improved its record to 2-1 over three matches in the Golden State with wins against Vanguard.
Liljekvist and Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) shutout Nataliya Yamkova and Sarah Edwards to get back in the win column after faltering from the top spot on Wednesday against UC San Diego. The duo also earned a victory at #1 against Cal State-Los Angeles and is in the midst of a run that includes four victories in the last six matches.
The tandems of Kim/Shoemaker and Klingert/Quevedo each came out on top against UCSD on Wednesday and closed the trip with their second-straight wins. Kim and Shoemaker got past Brooke Ferslov-Jensen and Ashley Wao-Udin in 12 games (8-4) at #2 while Klingert and Quevedo needed just 10 to down Gabriele Alford and Michaele Sullivan in the third spot.
In singles, Liljekvist continued to settle in to her spot atop the lineup, cruising past Edwards with a 6-1, 6-0 win that marked her sixth of the spring and seventh at #1 in 2014-15 overall.
With the rout on, Guryanova clinched the team win at #6 with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Yamkova. A highly successful sixth singles player throughout her career, the senior has now recorded straight-set wins all four times she has been penciled into the lineup this season and owns a 14-4 record at #6 during her time in South Orange, good enough for a .778 winning percentage.
Fellow senior Madison Shoemaker has also responded well to increased singles opportunities, recording four wins in her last six outings. Shoemaker closed the three-match swing with a 6-1, 6-3 dismantling of Ferslov-Jensen at #5; pushing her career total to within one victory of the 30-win mark in dual match play.
With classmate Luize Strike (Riga, Latvia) still sidelined, Kim and Quevedo continued to capably fill in at the second and third positions respectively.
At #3, Kim earned her third win of the spring by topping Wao-Udin, 6-0, 6-1. In the second spot, fellow newcomer Quevedo finished with her most commanding win since joing the squad in the fall, yielding only two games to Alford in a 6-0, 6-2 victory.
Seton Hall is now 2-1 when Kim contributes a singles point and is unbeaten when Quevedo has gotten on the board.
Making her 10th dual match appearance in her first season as a Pirate, Klingert posted her team-leading ninth win in a head-to-head setting and 12th of the spring overall with a 6-0, 6-1 result over Sullivan in fourth singles.
Klingert has added invaluable strength to the back half of The Hall's lineup, dropping a total of just four sets in her 10 dual match appearances.
As a team, The Hall has now split its last six matches with all three losses during the stretch coming by the narrowest of margins. The spring break trip also represented the third time this spring that the Pirates have played on as many as two consecutive days and the team has posted a 4-3 record in those matches.
Following a brief respite, the Pirates will open a three-match home-stand against conference foes next Friday, March 20 (3:30 p.m.) when Villanova visits the Garden State. SHU has claimed the last six meetings against the Wildcats and will look to continue to build momentum into the following week when BIG EAST foes Xavier (3/27) and Providence (3/29) are slated to come to town as well.
All three contests will be held at the Althea Gibson Tennis Center in Newark, N.J.
Seton Hall 9, Vanguard 0
Doubles
#1. Keenan/Liljekvist (SHU) def. Edwards/Yamkova (VAN), 8-0
#2. Kim/Shoemaker (SHU) def. Ferslov-Jensen/Wao-Udin (VAN), 8-4
#3. Klingert/Quevedo (SHU) def. Alford/Sullivan (VAN), 8-2
Singles
#1. Hannah Liljekvist (SHU) def. Sarah Edwards (VAN), 6-1, 6-0
#2. Marisa Quevedo (SHU) def. Gabriele Alford (VAN), 6-0, 6-2
#3. Katie Kim (SHU) def. Ashley Wao-Udin (VAN), 6-0, 6-1
#4. Isabell Klingert (SHU) def. Michaele Sullivan (VAN), 6-0, 6-1
#5. Madison Shoemaker (SHU) def. Brooke Ferslov-Jensen (VAN), 6-1, 6-3
#6. Anna Guryanova (SHU) def. Nataliya Yamkova (VAN), 6-2, 6-2
