10/19/2004
NEWPORT NEWS, VA. -- The Hoya women's tennis squad completed the final team competition of the fall 2004 season with another commanding performance at the Hampton Roads Collegiate Invitational Friday, October 15 through Sunday, October 17.
Competing against seventeen regional teams, including Syracuse and Connecticut from the BIG EAST, the Georgetown squad placed Liz Winokur (West Palm Beach, Fla./Cardinal Newman) in the semifinal of the B-2 Flight Singles, the team of Nora Gardner (Greenwich, Conn./Deerfield Academy (Mass.)) and Maddie Long (Washington, D.C./Academy of the Holy Cross (Md.)) in the semifinals of the D Flight Doubles, and singles players Eileen Boyle (Burr Ridge, Ill./St. Ignatius Prep) and Michelle DiCocco (Media, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) in the quarterfinals of the Flight D Singles.
Sensational come-from-behind performances highlighted the Hoyas play on Saturday. The first splendid overturning came from Winokur's racquet in her quarterfinal match-up against Klein of Richmond. Winokur had already completed two previous singles matches on Saturday and the legs and competitive spirit was weary late Saturday afternoon. The first set was won by Winokur, the second by her Spider opponent. The match would be determined when one player reached 10 points in the third set match tiebreaker. Winokur fell behind 8-3 and her fate looked grim. Surprisingly undeterred, Winokur held fast to win seven points in a row to take the tiebreak and the match and advance to Sunday's semifinal round.
Gardner and Long's quarterfinal doubles match was the last match of the day Saturday of well over two hundred matches played at the Huntington Park Tennis Center. Getting underway under the lights at 8 p.m., Gardner and Long's Delaware opponents started very strong and built leads of 5-0 and 6-1 in the pro-set won by the first team to 8. Working together, Gardner and Long constructed some remarkable doubles play just when it appeared they had fallen too far behind. And although the Hoyas inched their way back into the match, Delaware still had two match points that were saved by even more incredible play by Gardner and Long. A few minutes before 10 p.m. Saturday, fourteen hours after play had started at 8 a.m., Gardner and Long closed the day of tennis with an improbable 9-8(4) victory.
Play throughout Saturday and Sunday was contested in extremely windy conditions as gusts of twenty-five miles an hour coming off the James River were commonplace and challenging for the Hoyas and their competitors.
Boyle and DiCocco showed a lot of determination in battling through the worst wind conditions of the weekend to each win two main draw matches on Saturday. Adriann Gin (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School), Sana Malouf (McLean, Va./St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School), Steph Cohen (Fayetteville, N.Y./DeWitt), Long and Gardner all won singles matches over the weekend to help the Hoyas post an overall singles record of 12 wins against eight losses, another great team performance against a formidable slate of opponents.
2004 ranked teams at the Hampton Roads Collegiate Invitational included William and Mary- #35 nationally, Virginia Commonwealth - #61 nationally and regional powers Richmond - #10 East and Old Dominion - #12 East along with Syracuse and UConn. Also competing: Norfolk State, Hampton, Delaware, Hofstra, Lafayette, George Washington, UMBC, Longwood, Radford, Christopher Newport, Howard and James Madison.
The Hoyas have completed team competitions for the fall of 2004. The top Hoya singles players and doubles team will compete in the ITA Regional Singles and Doubles Championships at the University of Pennsylvania beginning Friday, October 22.
Hampton Road Collegiate Invitational
October 15-17, 2004
Huntington Park/Christopher Newport Univ., Newport News, VA
Liz Winokur - Flight B-2 Singles
1st Round - def Danielle Bailey (Lafayette) 6-1,6-3
2nd Round - def. Alexa Dragonette (Delaware) 6-0,0-6,12-10
Quarterfinal - def. Courtney Klein (Richmond) 6-3,5-7,10-8
Semifinal - lost Barbara Costa (Old Dominion) 6-1,6-0
Nora Gardner/Maddie Long - Flight C Doubles
1st Round - def Lizbeth Hoyos/Melencia Johnson (Norfolk State) 8-2
Quarterfinal - def Brittany Barsky/Katie Miller (Delaware) 9-8(4)
Semifinal - lost Barbara Schumsky/Liz Dibbs(Connecticut) 8-1
Eileen Boyle - Flight D Singles
1st Round - def Nancy Hott (Longwood) 6-3,7-5
2nd Round - def Sarah Akers (Radford) 6-3,6-2
Quarterfinal - lost Julie Schiller (Delaware) 6-3,6-0
Michelle DiCocco - Flight D Singles
1st Round - def Marian Blancada (Howard)7-6(6),6-0
2nd Round - def Natalie Hudson (Hofstra) 2-6,6-2,10-2
Quarterfinal - lost Aqueia Moore (Hampton) 6-1,6-7(6),10-4
Steph Cohen - Flight B-1 Singles
1st Round - lost Erica Regggiani (Hofstra) 7-5,6-3
Consolation - def. Courtney Klein (Richmond) 8-4
Adriann Gin - Flight B-1 Singles
1st Round - def. Elizabeth Anderson (UMBC) 6-4,7-5
2nd Round - lost Elena Besedova (Hampton) 4-6,6-4,10-4
Maddie Long - Flight B-1 Singles
1st Round - lost Jamie de Graffenreid (Delaware) 6-3,6-4
Consolation - def Jennifer Itonyo(Norfolk State) 8-2
Sana Malouf - Flight C Singles
1st Round - def Marissa Singer (Delaware) 6-2,7-6(5)
2nd Round - lost Barbara Schumsky (Connecticut) 6-4,6-3
Nora Gardner - Flight D Singles
1st Round - def Alicia Raymond (Longwood) 6-0,6-0
2nd Round - lost Aqueia Moore (Hampton) 6-2,6-7(2),10-4
Sana Malouf/Steph Cohen - Flight C Doubles
1st Round - lost Jana Korycankova/Leda Pestova(Hampton) 8-4
Eileen Boyle/Michelle DiCocco - Flight C Doubles
1st round - lost Liz Perlow/Marissa Singer(Delaware) 8-4
