Women’s tennis begins fall season

The women’s tennis team kicked off its fall season on Friday in the 17^th annual Cissie Leary Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania.

Freshman Anais Nussaume collected her first two collegiate singles win in her Temple debut as she advances to Saturday’s quarterfinals. Five other  Owls also competed in the tournament Friday along with 14 different institutions including Penn, Drexel, Akron, Bowdoin, Columbia, Cornell, Delaware, LIU Brooklyn, Maryland, Penn State, Princeton, Rhode Island, Richmond and St. John’s.

In singles play, Nussaume received a bye in the first round but later defeated her opponent, Olivia Gaudreault from Maryland, in a 6-4, 7-5 victory as she  is the lone  Owl who is still in contention for a title. On Saturday, Nussaume will square off against Columbia’s Tiana Takenaga.

Senior Alicia Doms and junior Rebecca Breland both secured victories in the opening round of their singles matches. Doms won her match against Penn State’s Marie Bedard, 6-1, 6-3. Doms would then fall short, as she dropped her match against Anastasia Polyakova from St. Johns. Breland walked away with a 6-1, 6-2 win against  St. John’s Yanita Amaudova but failed to continue her winning streak as she lost in a 6-2, 6-4 decision to Columbia’s Cyrstal Leung. Both women fell into the consolation bracket.

After a bye in the first round, a 7-5, 6-3 defeat was handed to senior Yana Mavrina by her Rhode Island opponent, which immediately pushed her into consolation play. On Saturday, Marvina will go head to head against Bowdoin’s Tiffany Heng. Doms, Breland and sophomore Minami Okajima, who lost in the second round after a bye, will also play in the consolation bracket.  Senior Carly Bohman will be playing in the consolation bracket, after losing in the opening round and then dropping her next matches.

In doubles action, the pair of Breland and Mavrina were victorious in the round of 32 as they received a bye in the first round. They advanced to Saturday’s round of 16 as they defeated Columbia’s Ioana Alecsiu and Vivian Cheng in an 8-6 decision.

Bohman and Okajiima were successful as they went on to defeat Rhode Island’s Nihilia Asokaraj and Tayor Holder in the first round of 64. The duo then fell to Maryland’s Welma Luus and Alexandra Stanova in an 8-1 decision to move in consolation play.

“I am hoping for a good performance [on Saturday] even though they haven’t played a couple matches in a row, this is their first tournament of the season so hopefully they step up,” coach Steve Mauro said.

The women will resume action early on Saturday.