Taluyenko Advances to Singles Finals at West Point Invitatonal

October 3, 2018

By Gigi Speer

Sophomore Arina Taluyenko and senior Whitney Weisberg starred for the Fordham Women’s Tennis at West Point (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)

This past weekend, the Fordham women’s tennis team headed up to West Point for a thrilling competition full of close matches and perseverance.

The doubles teams worked their way up the ladder, with senior Gianna Insogna and junior Maia Balce making it to the quarterfinals after defeating teams from Montana and Quinnipiac. The B draw remained strong with bookends, senior Whitney Weisberg and freshman Nicole Li defeating Marist’s Chloe Lant and Sophia Chavarria 7-5 before falling to Quinnipiac in the semifinals. The A doubles team, composed of sophomore Arina Taluyenko and senior Tatiana Grigoryan, bested the combo of Jennifer Lu and Payton Bradley of Quinnipiac 6-3 in the round of 32 before falling to Army’s Kirby Einck and Gloria Son 6-3 in the semifinals.

“I didn’t play the last few months in my previous college due to health problems so it is a little bit hard to get my game back after a long period,” said Taluyenko of her performance. “But it’s getting better and better every tournament and I’m looking to show my best [at] Regionals.”

Taluyenko certainly bounced back from her health issues, making it all the way to the finals of A singles after blowing past Fairfield’s Amanda Nowak 8-2 in the opening round, Sacred Heart’s Brianne Lauria 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, Columbia’s Catie Sullivan 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Sofya Treschcheva of Syracuse in the semis. Taluyenko’s Syracuse upset came after an exciting three sets with finals scores of 6-1, 5-7 and 10-5 in the semifinals. Unfortunately, the sophomore transfer fell to Syracuse’s Guzal Yusupova again in three exciting sets: 4-6, 6-2, 10-4.

“I was upset a little that I lost a final while I was so close to win, but I have so much to work on in order to improve my game,” she said.

Coach Bette-Ann Liguori added: “Arina, in the [first] singles draw, beat players from Columbia and Syracuse and lost in the finals to Syracuse in a very close match. I was truly pleased with our team’s performance.”

Weisberg, Grigoryan, Insogna and Li continued the single success, with Wesiburg defeating Sacred Heart and Bryant to go to Army for semifinals. Grigoryan made it past the eighth seed Luciana Rabines of Connecticut and Consuela van Grinsven of St. Bonaventure, before falling to top-seeded Dina Hegan of Syracuse 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Insogna defeated Quinnipiac’s Proyfon Lohaphaisan 8-7 (seven) in the round of 32 before falling to sixth-seeded Julieanne Bou of Connecticut 6-3, 6-2 in the round of 16.

Fifth-seeded Nicole Li beat Binghamton’s Tiffany Dun 8-3 in the round of 32 and Quinnipiac’s Courtney Nash 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 16 before falling to Army’s Samantha DiMaio 4-6, 7-6 (four), 10-8 in the quarterfinals of C singles.

“Overall, we had a very successful tournament. The Eastern Champions at West Point had over 20 teams competing, with Syracuse and Columbia being ranked in the top 50 in the country,” said Liguori. “There were only [eight] teams left in the main draw semifinals on Sunday and to have Arina Taluyenko and Whitney Weisberg still playing was a great accomplishment.”

The team looks to keep working hard at the ITA Northeast Regionals, hosted by Yale in New Haven, Connecticut on Oct. 11-15.