By TARA CANGIALOSI

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Fordham women’s tennis team was back in action two weekends ago, from Oct. 11 to Oct. 13, when it competed in the USTA Women’s College Invitational at the U.S. National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y.

In singles play, Elliesa Ball advanced to the semifinals of the A Singles competition, where she lost to Princeton’s Sivan Krems, 6-4, 6-2. In her journey to the semis, Ball first defeated Audrey Ann Blakely of Pittsburgh in the round of 16, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8, and then battled from behind after losing the first set to beat Crystal Leung of Columbia 7-5, 10-3.

In B singles, Sarah Ali fell to Delaware’s Carmen Lai in the opening round by a score of 7-6 (4), 6-2. In the back draw, Ali bettered Providence’s Maria Bernardez 3-6, 6-3, 10-6, before falling to FDU’s Shreya Pasricha 7-5, 6-0.

Angelika Dabu competed in C singles for the Rams, where she lost to Charleston Southern’s Mikola Cooper 6-2, 6-4. The senior fell to Hofstra’s Louise Lopez, but bounced back to beat Seton Hall’s Rocio Portela, 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Anika Novacek played in D singles, but fell to Alexandra Walters from Charleston Southern, 6-0, 6-2, then to Alexis Tashiro from Binghamton in the back draw by a score of 6-2, 6-3.

Freshman Destiny Grunin played in E singles, where she dropped her first match to Rutgers’ Lindsay Balsamo 7-6(6), 6-0. In the back draw, Grunin bested UConn’s Lucy Netting 6-4, 6-2, before losing to Providence’s Carolina Zanotta 6-2, 1-6, 10-8.

Junior Julie Leong represented the Rams in F singles, defeating NJIT’s Megan Guidry in the round of 16 by a score of 6-3, 6-1, and then losing to Harvard’s Hannah Morrill 6-3, 6-1.

In G singles, Bella Genkina lost her opening match to Charleston Southern’s Angelika Sidorenko 3-6, 6-1, 10-7, but came back to beat FDU’s Manu Lemend 6-0, 6-1 in the back draw. She then dropped her last match to UTA’s Ekaterina Tugariwova, 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.

In doubles action, the highlight for the Rams came when Grunin teamed up with Delaware’s Nataliya Naumova and won the D doubles flight.

The pair first defeated FDU’s Lemeand and Pasricha in the round of 16, 8-3, and Columbia’s Amy Li and Nada Zaher in the quarterfinals, 8-3. The duo bettered Connecticut’s Jenise Vargas and Marie Gargiulo 8-4 in the semifinals and sealed the flight victory with an 8-5 win over Pittsburgh’s Kimmy Borza and Katherine Castro.

Also in doubles, the junior pair of Ball and Ali played in the A tournament, where they won their first match against FDU’s Masha Krachok and Ksenija Tihomirova, 8-4. They then fell to Rocio Portela and Chloe Sher from Seton Hall, 8-6, and Pittsburgh’s Jocelyn Lu and Taylor Washington 8-6 in the back draw.

Dabu and Novacek played in B doubles, where the pair dropped their round of 16 match to Providence’s Maria Bernardez and Hannah Zangari, 8-3. In the back draw, they bettered Shea Flanagan and Lucy Nutting of Connecticut, 8-5, and lost to Lindsay Balsamo and Vanessa Petrini from Rutgers, 8-2.

Genkina and Leong also teamed up in the C tournament. They dropped their first round match, and in their first back draw match they lost 8-4 to St. John’s Khrystyna Pavlyuk and Puck Vlaskamp. They then rebounded to beat Bryant’s Briana Leonard and Jenna LaBarre, 9-8 (4), in their final doubles match.

In the team’s last big invitational before the long-awaited ITA Regional tournament, the Rams looked to make the final push in qualifying for the high-profile tournament.

“I’d like to take at least four players to Regionals,” hea coach Bette-Ann Liguori said. “That would be ideal.”

As the fall season comes to a close, the Rams will make their final appearance at the ITA Regional tournament, which is held at Harvard University. Play began on Thursday Oct. 17 and will continue until Tuesday Oct. 23.