Tennis: Women win doubles event, take 3 singles flights

The women’s tennis team opened its fall season this weekend, heading to Providence to compete in the Brown Invitational. Three Princeton players claimed victories in their respective singles groups, and the team won the tournament doubles title.

Princeton opened well on Friday, winning six singles and six doubles matches. Freshman Lindsay Graff dominated Binghamton’s Kaya Medianik, winning 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Katherine Flanigan also did not concede a game, defeating Binghamton’s Basak Gone 6-0, 6-0. Freshman Joan Cannon also won in straight sets, defeating Satreethai Sasinin of Rutgers 6-0, 6-1. Freshman Katie Goepel defeated Monika Michal of Boston University 6-2, 7-6(3). Senior Hilary Bartlett defeated Jennifer Holzberg of Rutgers 6-4, 6-2. Senior Rachel Saiontz completed Princeton’s six straight-set singles victories, defeating Stef Balasa of Rutgers 6-1, 6-1.

In doubles play, Bartlett and Graff defeated Marina Bykovskaya and Emma Leibowicz of Binghamton 8-4 before defeating Dartmouth’s Melissa Matsuoka and Akiko Okuda 8-1. Cannon and junior Monica Chow took an 8-1 match over Binghamton and beat a Dartmouth team 8-6, while Goepel and Saiontz did the same, 8-3 and 8-1. With three victories over both Binghamton and Dartmouth, the Tigers advanced to the doubles finals against Boston College on Saturday.

Princeton continued to accumulate victories on both the singles and the doubles courts the following day. Graff won another match in straight sets, defeating Brown’s Jessica Harrow 6-0, 6-3. Saiontz and Cannon also notched two-set victories, but the other two winners needed a tiebreak. Goepel defeated Brown’s Julie Flanzer in three sets, 6-7(8), 6-2, (10-7) and Flanigan defeated Lindsay Balsam of Rutgers 6-1, 3-6, (10-6).

The Tigers were again successful in doubles play, taking three of four matches from Boston College to win the team title. The duos of Graff and Hilary Bartlett; Goepel and Saiontz; and sophomore Caitlin Barlett and Flanigan were all victorious over their Eagles counterparts.

Singles play concluded on Sunday with three Tigers winning their flights. Graff defeated Olga Khmylev of Boston College 6-2, 7-6(6). Saiontz defeated Leonie Athanasiadis of Boston University 6-1, 6-0. Flanigan defeated Ina Kauppila of Boston College 7-5, 6-2.

The men’s tennis team competed in its second tournament of the fall season, heading to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y., to participate in the United States Tennis Association Invitational.

The Tigers had a successful start to the tournament on Friday, claiming six victories in the A through D draws of singles and doubles. Junior Matt Spindler easily disposed of Army’s Rashad Shelton, 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round of A singles play. Sophomore Dan Richardson defeated Yale’s Kyle Dawson in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, in C singles play. Richardson also won a pair of C doubles alongside freshman Zack McCourt.

Junior Michael Lin and senior Yohei Shoji narrowly beat Daniel Hoffman and Marc Powers of Yale 9-8 in their first A doubles match before falling to Brown’s Sam Fife and Will Spector 8-4. In D doubles, sophomore Augie Bloom and freshman Ben Quazzo defeated Cameron Amoyot and Reece Breault of Fairfield 8-3 before falling to Penn’s Jeremy Court and Phil Law 8-1.

The following day, Spindler defeated long-time foe Daniel Hoffman of Yale 6-1, 3-6, (10-3), to advance to the A semifinals. Spindler faced Dartmouth’s Alex Centenari in the semifinals, falling 0-6, 6-4, (10-8). Richardson won in straight sets over Columbia’s Tizian Bucher 6-4, 6-4, to reach the C semifinals, where he fell to Columbia’s John Yetimoglu 6-3, 6-2. Richardson also lost his doubles match alongside McCourt, falling 8-6 to the Brown duo of Tom Deighton and Mike Riechmann. Playing in the G singles bracket, Shoji earned two victories on Saturday to advance to the finals. In the quarterfinals, Shoji defeated Ryan Zannette of Fairleigh Dickinson University 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(1), before defeating Andres Rosa of St. Francis in the semifinals 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(1). The following day, Shoji fell in the finals 6-4, 6-4 to Luccas Coutinho of Saint Peter’s.

The men’s team will continue to practice through this weekend before heading to Tulsa, Okla., on Oct. 3 to compete in the International Tennis Association All-America tournament. The women head to Los Angeles next weekend to compete in the same event.