Winklaar and Edelman Take Weekly Honors - AmericaEast.com
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A pair of student-athletes earned Player of the Week honors thanks to stellar play in both singles and doubles competition last week. UMBC junior Rasid Winklaar (Willemstad, Curacao/Abraham Baldwin) took the men’s Player of the Week award while Binghamton senior Anna Edelman (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck North) earned the women’s Player of the Week nod.
Winklaar earned his third weekly award of the season after posting a pair of victories in both singles and doubles play. The junior went 2-0 as UMBC knocked off Florida Gulf Coast, 5-2 in Fort Myers. He teamed with sophomore Adam Duprat to cruise past Steve Binninger and Frank Acierno, 8-3, at No. 3 doubles and then posted a decisive, 6-1, 6-3, victory over Binninger at No. 2 singles. Winklaar has now won six consecutive singles matches and is 8-2 in his first spring with the Retrievers. He also won matches at No. 2 singles and doubles in UMBC’s 6-1 victory over Howard. He is now 3-0 at the No. 2 singles position.
Edelman posted an undefeated mark at No. 1 singles and a 2-1 record at the top doubles spot in three dual matches last week. In singles competition, Edelman registered straight-set victories in all three matches, raising her season record to 26-6, including 8-3 in dual matches. Edelman defeated Albany’s Susan Ma at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-0, on Friday, followed by a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Old Dominion’s Joanna Dobrowolska Sunday and capped the week off with an impressive, 6-1, 6-0, showing against Virginia State’s Amanda Spencer on Monday.
The University at Albany Great Danes (1-9) won their first match of the spring season with a 6-1 victory over Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon. Senior Susan Ma (Parkville, Mo./Park Hills South) won at first singles and combined with junior Aubrey Brooks (Guilford, Conn./Guilford) for a doubles win to lead Albany. Ma recorded the Great Danes’ first singles win with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Kate Donnelly. Senior Laine Mackey (Leawood, Kan./Shawnee Mission) recorded a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles, while Brooks posted a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Gabi Kaldan from the No. 3 singles spot. Albany swept all three doubles matches to earn the point. Ma and Brooks recorded an 8-4 victory at No. 1 doubles. The Great Danes were swept by America East foe Binghamton, 7-0, on Friday afternoon in the first match of the weekend. The Great Danes will visit St. Bonaventure on Sunday afternoon for their only match of the week.
The Binghamton University women’s tennis team (5-6) posted a 2-1 mark in three dual matches last week. Both wins for the Bearcats were shutouts as Binghamton blanked Albany, 7-0, Friday night and toppled Virginia State by the same score Monday evening. Four of Binghamton’s five wins on the season are shutouts. The lone loss for the Bearcats was a 6-1 decision to Old Dominion on Sunday. Binghamton is currently in the midst of its spring break trip down the East Coast with matches against Coastal Carolina, South Carolina State and Richmond slated over the next four days. Senior Anna Edelman (Great Neck, N.Y./Great NeckNorth) and juniors Marina Bykovskaya (Saratov, Russia/Secondary School 8) and Emma Leibowicz (Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Allderdice) each registered a 5-1 record for the week. Edelman went undefeated at the No. 1 singles spot and tallied a 2-1 showing in doubles play, while Bykovskaya and Leibowicz were 3-0 in doubles competition and 2-1 in singles action. Edelman raised her season record to 26-6 in singles play, including 8-3 in duals. Binghamton will face Coastal Carolina March 22 at 2 p.m. The Binghamton men (2-11) dropped their lone match of the week in a 5-2 decision at Brown. Senior Sven Vloedgraven (Lochem, Netherlands/Isendoorn College), ranked 95th in the country, posted his 10th dual win in 12 matches with a straight-set win. Vloedgraven is 21-7 overall. Junior Alexandre Haggai (St. Denis, Reunion Island/Lycee Bellepierre) also scored a win at the fourth spot. The Bearcats continue their spring break trip with four more matches in the Virginia/Carolina region.
The Boston University women went 2-2 over Spring Break and were two points away from posting a perfect record. Now 8-6, the Terriers earned a 5-2 win over South Alabama and a 6-1 decision against Buffalo. Boston U. won three singles contests against both Auburn and Georgia State but lost the doubles point each day in back-to-back 4-3 losses. Junior Stefanie Nunic (New York, N.Y./Broward Virtual Education) led the way with a 4-0 record in singles action. The Terriers next host Cincinnati on Wednesday, March 23 at 3 p.m. Playing five matches in five days, the Boston University men finished their Spring Break trip to Florida with a 2-3 record. Now 6-7, the Terriers earned a 5-2 victory against Western Illinois and a 5-4 win at Florida Tech before dropping two one-point losses against Bucknell and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Fairleigh Dickinson handed Boston U. its first loss of the week in a 6-1 decision. Freshman Jesse Frieder (Providence, R.I./The Wheeler School) and sophomore Ferdinand Brunet (London, England/Stony Brook) each had three singles victories on the week. The Terriers next host Marist on Saturday, March 26 at 1 p.m.
The University of Hartford tennis teams wrapped up their spring break road trip to Baltimore on Tuesday when they visited Loyola (Md.). The men’s team (1-5) fell, 5-2, while the women (1-4) were blanked, 7-0. On the men’s side, the Hawks got production out of the top of their lineup, with junior Aneil Bhalla (Ottawa, Ontario/Merivale) winning, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 1 singles and sophomore Marco Neves (Sao Paolo, Brazil/Colegio Salesiano Santa Teresinha) grabbing a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph at No. 2 singles. That was all the Hawks could manage against the Greyhounds. Hartford will return to action on Thursday when the women visit Quinnipiac. Both teams will take the courts Saturday in Newark, N.J., when they take on St. Francis (Pa.) and NJIT.
The UMBC men (10-3) reached the 10-win mark on the campaign with their fifth consecutive win. The men’s tennis program has hit double-digit victories in 14 consecutive seasons. Junior Rasid Winklaar (Willemstad, Curocao/Abraham Baldwin College) went 2-0 as UMBC knocked off FGCU, 5-2, in Fort Myers, Fla. He teamed with sophomore Adam Duprat (Bobigny, France/Institute Deschamp (Belgium)) to cruise past Steve Binninger and Frank Acierno, 8-3, at No. 3 doubles. Winklaar then posted a decisive, 6-1, 6-3, victory over Binninger at No. 2 singles. Winklaar has now won six consecutive singles matches and is 8-2 in his initial spring with the Retrievers. He is 3-0 at the No. 2 position. Winklaar also won matches at No. 2 singles and doubles in UMBC’s 6-1 victory over Howard. Senior Mwali Phiri (Yonkers, N.Y./Tyler JC) also went 4-0 on the week. He combined with junior Joe Adewumi (Phoenix, Ariz./North Canyon) to edge FGCU’s Carlo Checchia and Dean Tsamas, 9-8, at the No. 1 doubles slot in the point-deciding match. The UMBC women (8-6) blanked Lehigh, 7-0, before dropping a tough, 4-3, decision at FGCU. At Lehigh, the Retrievers took the doubles point, winning at Nos. 1 and 3. The No. 1 duo of freshman Kim Berghaus (Offenbach, Germany/Leibnizgymnasium) and junior Carmen Jackman (Silver Spring, Md./Blake) won the deciding match, 8-3. UMBC did not drop a set in singles. Sophomore Julia Gregera-Cano (Badajoz, Spain/Fresno State) blanked her opponent, Liz Piscitelli, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 3 singles, while Berghaus, at the top slot, and senior Emily Mannix (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough), playing at the No. 5 position, each triumphed by identical 6-1, 6-0 scores. Against FGCU, Berghaus, Gregara-Cano and Mannix each triumphed in singles. Berghaus won decisively, 6-4, 6-1, over Morgan Bechtel and Gregara-Cano also won in straight sets, 7-3, 7-6, over Bettina Botha. Mannix won a nail-biter, winning 7-6, 1-6, 10-6 over Bibiana Almeida. With the match tied at 3-3, UMBC freshman No. 6 Josefin Stange-Jonsson (Vasteras, Sweden/De La Gardiegymnasiet) rallied from a set down to take the deciding match to a third set, but fell, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, to FGCU freshman Gyanna Mandic. Both teams remain in Florida and will play at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.
Stony Brook University was idle last week. The men’s team (3-6) is off until April 1, when it hosts St. John’s. The women (5-2) return to the courts March 29 for a home meeting against Fairleigh Dickinson.