Binghamton University, Stony Brook University and University of Vermont posted first-round wins Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the America East Women's Tennis Championship Semifinals at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Second-seeded Stony Brook, competing in its first America East Tennis Championship since joining the conference last fall, posted a 6-0 win over seventh-seeded University at Albany and will meet third-seeded Binghamton, another America East newcomer and a 5-1 winner over sixth-seeded University of Hartford, in a semifinal Saturday at 9 a.m. Top-seeded Boston University, the seven-time defending champion, meets fifth-seeded Vermont, a 4-3 winner over fifth-seeded University of New Hampshire, in the other semifinal at 12 noon. The winner of the America East Women's Tennis Championship, which will be decided Sunday, receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Results
Stony Brook swept the three doubles matches to take a 1-0 team lead. Martha Barrett and Karen Hansen posted an 8-1 win over Violeta Petijevic and Marisa Berley in the first doubles. Patricia Gomez and Georgia Bushell were 8-2 winners over Alex Berley and Reeba Miller at second doubles. Olesya Ianovitch and Deanna Ghozati teamed for an 8-0 win over Lisa Fund and Erin Morrison in third doubles.
The Seawolves also won five of the six singles matches. Gomez posted a 6-2, 6-0 win over Marisa Berley at number two singles. Hansen defeated Alex Berley, 6-0, 6-1 at number three singles. Bushell downed Krista Babiarz, 6-0, 6-2 at number four singles. Ianovitch was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Stacy Kaminski at number five singles. Ghozati won 6-1, 6-2 at number six singles. The other singles match between Barett and Petijevic was stopped after the outcome of the team match had been decided with Barrett leading 6-4, 7-6.
Binghamton dropped the doubles team point to Hartford as the Hawks took two-of-three matches. Hartford's Ani Mora and Alexis Alexander defeated Grace Wu and Janine Sadaka, 8-4, while Amanda Schmidt and Angela Venicosa downed Erin Monaco and Jen Sussman, 8-5. The Bearcats took the other doubles match as Kristin Jobe and Amy Linda defeated Stefanie and Crystallia Leontiadis, 8-2.
The Bearcats received singles wins from Sadaka (7-6, 6-0 over Alexander), Weissberg (6-1, 6-1 over Crystallia Leontiadis), Jobe (6-2, 6-2 over Schmidt) and Monaco (6-4, 6-1 over Venincosa) at numbers two, three, five and six singles, respectively. Wu led Mora, 6-3, 5-4 and Alexis Brill led Stefanie Leontiadis, 6-3, 5-2, in a pair of singles matches that were not finished after the outcome of the team match had been decided.
Vermont won the most tightly-contested match of the day when Susannah O'Brien defeated Amy Surprenant, 6-4, 7-5 in sixth doubles for a 4-3 team decision.
The Catamounts won the doubles point as Alie Taylor and Molly Moran defeated Hallie Erickson and Jenny Witter, 9-7 and Katie Davidow and Sarah Taylor downed Katie Rose and Surprenant, 8-2 to offset the Wildcats win by Lindsey Johnson and Kim LeDonne over Danielle Fleury and Joanna Kahn, 8-1.
The Wildcats won at first and second singles as Johnson defeated Moran, 6-3, 6-0 and LeDonne beat Kahn, 6-3, 6-4. Vermont's Davidow took the third singles, 6-3, 6-4 over Erickson. Witter took a point for the Wildcats at the fourth singles with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Sarah Taylor. Alie Taylor defeated Rose, 6-3, 6-3 at fifth singles to set up the decisive match between O'Brien and Surprenant.
Hartford will play New Hampshire in a consolation bracket match Saturday at 9 a.m. The winner of that match plays Albany in the fifth-place match at 3 p.m.
The America East Tennis Championship utilizes a format of three doubles matches and six singles matches. Doubles matches are played first using eight-game pro sets with a 12-point tie-break at eight games all. The team winning two or more of the doubles matches receives one point in the team scoring. The doubles matches are followed by the singles matches using a best two-of-three sets format. Each singles match is worth one point. A minimum of four points is required to win the team match.