FARMVILLE, Va. - The Longwood University women's tennis team hosted the Longwood Fall Invitational on September 29-30. The Lancers squared off against teams from Morehead State University, North Carolina Central University and Norfolk State University in Farmville during the two-day competition. The Lancers were led by sophomore
Malin Allgurin|Värnamo, Sweden (Finnvedens Gymnasium), who turned in a 3-0 record in Flight A, and junior
Sarah Moomau|Winchester (John Handley), who finished third in Flight B with a 2-1 record. Allgurin and Moomau teamed up in doubles competition (2-1) to finish as the Flight A runners-up. Longwood will compete again October 19-23, at the USTA/ITA Regional Championships in Blacksburg, Va.
“It is always nice when you are able to compete during the fall on your home courts,” said head coach
Jakob Gustafsson. “I was happy with the way we defended our courts and the players showed a lot of experience in their matches. All of the girls had really good showings in singles, and if we can get healthy and stay healthy through the spring, we have a lot of good matches to look forward to. We are showing promise to break through to another level as a team and I hope we can get there through these next few weeks of practice. The immediate goal right now, though, is to recover physically from this hectic three-week stretch of matches that we have had. We will see a very hectic schedule in the spring and in the Big South as well, so we need to get used to it.”
Malin won her first round match against Victoria Cran of MSU in three sets (3-6, 6-2, 10-4) before winning her semifinal match against Olesya Palko of NCCU (7-6 (8), 6-1), as well as winning an additional matchup against Andrea Macchiavello of NSU (8-0). Meanwhile, Moomau defeated Kia Batiste of NSU (6-1, 6-3) in her first round match before losing her semifinal match to Aissa Muamba of NCCU (6-4, 6-3) and winning her third-place match over Mafalda Lhorca of NSU (8-1).
Senior
Marta Pinyol|Barcelona, Spain (IESM Ferran Tallada) went 1-0 in Flight A singles competition, as she defeated Ekaterina Nekrasova of NCCU (6-3, 7-5) following a first round bye. In Flight B singles action, senior
Allison Shulman|Richmond (Deep Run) also went 1-0 in the tournament, defeating Mafalda Lhorca of NSU (6-0, 6-0) in her first round match. Senior
Hannah Hill|Portsmouth (Western Branch) finished 0-1 following a first round bye, a semifinal win by default due to injury, and a loss to Aissa Muamba of NCCU (6-4, 6-1) in the Flight B finals.
Juniors
Nicole Parker|Richmond (Mills E. Godwin) and
Bethany Law|Ona, W.Va. (Cabell Midland) touted 2-0 records on the weekend in Flight C single competition. Parker defeated Julia Aguilar of NCCU (6-0, 6-0) in the first round and Maryna Kariuk of NSU (6-7 (2), 6-2, 10-2) in the semifinal, while Law defeated Rebecca Graff of NSU (6-1, 6-0) in the first round and Mia Ramic of NCCU (6-3, 6-4) in the semifinals.
Allgurin and Moomau defeated Cran and Beaule of MSU (8-2) in a first round match, defeated Ramic and Palko of NCCU (8-5) in their semifinal, and lost to Nekrasova and Wood of NCCU (8-5) en route to their second place finish in the Flight A doubles competition. Shulman and Pinyol (0-2) placed fourth in Flight A following a loss to Ramic and Palko of NCCU (9-7), while Law, who played with Maryna Kariuk of NSU, finished with a record of 0-2 after losing their consolation match to Macchiavello and Lhorca (8-5) of NSU. Hill and Parker (2-1) played to a second place finish in the Flight B doubles round-robin by defeating Graff and Batiste of NSU (8-1), losing to Helms and Pacheo of MSU (8-4) and defeating Aguilar and Muamba of NCCU (8-1).
