Winklaar and Santos Named Players of the Week - AmericaEast.com
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A pair of juniors stood out from the crowd in America East tennis this week, going unbeaten in both singles and doubles matches. UMBC junior Rasid Winklaar (Willemstad, Curacao/Abraham Baldwin College) took home the men’s Player of the Week honor while Binghamton University junior Jillian Santos (Flushing, N.Y./Cardozo) earned the women’s Player of the Week award.
Winklaar earned his second straight America East Player of the Week award this week. The junior posted a pair of victories in UMBC’s 4-0 win over Navy on Sunday. Winklaar partnered with junior Adam Duprat (Bobigny, France/Institute Deschamp) to pull out a dramatic win and give the Retrievers the doubles point over the Midshipmen. Down two breaks at 6-2, the duo battled back to win 9-8. In singles, he improved to 5-2 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory at the No. 3 slot.
Santos posted a 4-0 mark in two dual matches over the weekend. Santos registered a victory at second singles and second doubles to lead the Bearcats past Penn Friday. In a close loss to Buffalo on Sunday, Santos put forth an impressive performance, dropping only three games on the day en route to her second straight unbeaten match. Santos teamed with senior Yulia Smirnova (Moscow, Russia/Secondary School 1574) for an 8-0 triumph at second doubles and breezed past Aleksandra Petrova at second singles, 6-3, 6-0. In singles play, Santos is 17-6 on the season.
University at Albany (0-7) fell to Massachusetts, 7-0, on Saturday at the Bay Road Tennis Club in the Great Danes’ only match of the week. Beginning with the No. 1 singles, Julia Comas defeated senior Susan Ma (Parkville, Mo./Park Hills South), 6-1, 6-1. In No. 2 singles, Yuliana Motyl may have had the toughest match of the day against senior Laine Mackey (Leawood, Kansas/Shawnee Mission) before posting a 6-1, 6-3 win. The Great Danes will return to action on Saturday, March 12, when they host Fairfield at 1 p.m.
The Binghamton University men (2-8) dropped their fourth straight match, a 4-0 setback to UNC-Wilmington on Saturday. The team dropped all three doubles matches and the first three completed singles contests. The Bearcats are still trying to solidify the bottom of their lineup, as Nos. 4-6 are a combined 2-27 in duals. Senior Arnav Jain (Mumbai, India/J.M.L. School) had his eight-match win streak snapped in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 loss at No. 2 singles. Jain is 8-2 in duals. Binghamton faces Ivy League foes Harvard and Yale this week. The Binghamton women (3-5) split a pair of dual matches over the weekend. The Bearcats posted a 5-3 win over the University of Pennsylvania. Juniors Jillian Santos (Flushing, N.Y./Cardozo), Marina Bykovskaya (Saratov, Russa/Secondary School 8) and Emma Leibowicz (Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Allderdice) each recorded a pair of wins to fuel the visiting Bearcats past the Quakers. Binghamton captured the doubles point with wins at second doubles from Santos and senior Yulia Smirnova (Moscow, Russia/Secondary School 1574) and third doubles from Bykovskaya and Leibowicz. No. 12 Connie Hsu sparked a quick spurt for the Quakers as she defeated Binghamton senior Anna Edelman (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck North) at No. 1 singles. However, singles wins by Santos, Bykovskaya, Leibowicz and senior Lauren Bates (Buffalo, N.Y./Kenmore West) secured the victory for the Bearcats. On Sunday, Binghamton fell in a close match to the University of Buffalo, 4-3. Binghamton held an early 3-0 advantage but dropped four consecutive singles matches in the loss. Santos was the only Bearcat to win a pair of matches. She teamed with Smirnova for an 8-0 victory at second doubles and cruised past Aleksandra Petrova at second singles with a 6-3, 6-0 showing. The Bearcat women do not return to the court until a March 18 match at Albany.
Playing without juniors Stefanie Nunic (New York, N.Y./Broward Virtual Education) and Petra Santini (Sibenik, Croatia/Gimnazija Za Dopisno Obrazovanje Birotehnika), the No. 70 Boston University women dropped to 6-4 after falling at No. 53 Brown, 7-0, on Saturday afternoon. Junior Monika Mical (Stalowa Wola, Poland/Penn State) led the Terriers with seven games won in singles action. Earlier in the week, Nunic and sophomore Vivien Laszloffy (Budapest, Hungary/Thomas Mann Gymnasium) earned their first-ever national ranking in doubles at No. 68. Boston U. has this week off before heading to Miami for Spring Break. The Boston U. men (4-4) facing their third Ivy League opponent of the season, fell at Dartmouth, 7-0, on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Jesse Frieder (Providence, R.I./The Wheeler School) won a set at No. 4 singles before dropping the third-set tiebreaker. The Terriers will have the week off before heading to South Florida for Spring Break.
University of Hartford dropped three matches over the weekend, with the men (0-3) falling to Bryant at home and at Quinnipiac by 7-0 scores and the women (0-2) dropping a 7-0 decision to Manhattan. For the men, the only victory of the weekend came when sophomore Bogdan Nedelcu (Rocky Hill, Conn./Rocky Hill) and freshman Joel de los Santos (New York, N.Y./A. Philip Randolph) took an 8-5 decision at No. 3 doubles against Bryant. For the women, junior Maggie Sabatino (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) and freshman Ashley Harel (Roslyn Heights, N.Y./Roslyn) put up a strong fight at No. 1 doubles, but fell to Manhattan’s top doubles team, 9-8 (7-3). The Hawks will be back in action next weekend at UMBC. They then stay in Baltimore to take on Coppin State and Loyola.
The UMBC men’s tennis team improved to 7-3 on the season as it defeated Navy, 4-0, at Twin Lakes Racquet Club in Baltimore on March 6. Navy had won four consecutive matches and fell to 11-6 on the season. The two squads split the Nos. 1 and 2 doubles matches before UMBC pulled out a dramatic comeback at No. 3 doubles to capture the doubles point. Junior Adam Duprat (Bobigny, France/Institute Deschamp) and junior Rasid Winklaar (Willemstad, Curacao/Abraham Baldwin College) were down two breaks at 6-2, but battled back to knot the match, 8-8, and force a tiebreaker. They blanked Navy’s Heyward Drayton and Jeremy New in the breaker, 7-0, to complete the comeback win. UMBC carried the momentum to singles, where the match concluded after the Retrievers won the first three matches. Winklaar ousted Zach Nicholson, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and UMBC’s No. 1 Cristian Hodel (Calarasi, Romania/Boise State) held off Owen Bullard, 6-4, 7-5. UMBC No. 2 Joe Adewumi (Phoenix, Ariz./North Canyon) won the first set over Marcus Rebersak, 6-4, and was serving for the match at 6-5 in the second, but Rebersak fought off two match points in the 12th game and an additional match point in the tie-breaker to force a third set. Adewumi played a solid third set and triumphed, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3. He is now 16-4 in singles competition in 2010-11. The women were idle this week, as their match vs. Temple was moved to March 13. Both teams will host Hartford on March 12.
The Stony Brook University women (5-3) dropped a 6-1 decision at No. 28 Yale on Sunday. Sophomore Nini Lagvilava (Tbilisi, Georgia/Number 29) won, 7-5, 6-1, at No. 1 singles. It was the Seawolves’ second straight loss. Senior Gayatri Krishnan (Chennai, India/National Inst. of Open Schooling) and junior Katherine Hanson (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) lost in three sets at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, respectively. The men’s team (3-6) dropped two 6-1 decisions over the weekend. The Seawolves lost to Columbia on Friday before falling to No. 57 Princeton on Sunday. Freshman Nikita Fomin (Moscow, Russia/ Bradenton) won, 7-5, 6-1, at No. 1 singles to earn Stony Brook’s only point against Columbia. Sophomore Roope Kailaheimo (Helsinki, Finalnd/Mäkelänrinteen Lukio) won in three sets at No. 3 singles to earn the Seawolves’ only point on Sunday against Princeton.