SU Knocks Off Yale in Tennis Action, 4-3

Friday, March 17

Boca Raton, Fla.

10 a.m.

Syracuse University

Yale

Maria Vasilyeva won at flight four singles to ice the Orange victory against Yale.

3/18/2006 11:39:37 AM | Tennis

Box Score

BOCA RATON, FLA-- The Syracuse women’s tennis team upended Yale, 4-3, in Boca Raton, Fla. on Friday. Freshman Maria Vasilyeva (St. Petersburg, Russia) won the deciding match at number four singles, while junior Ashley Lipton (Saratoga, Calif.) joined SU’s elite by earning two victories to make her the 25^th member of the SU “Century Club”. Lipton now has 101 career victories. Of those members of the “Century Club”, Lipton is just the eighth player all-time to reach the 100-win milestone in her junior season.

The Orange, who improves to 9-3 (2-0 BIG EAST) with the win, won the doubles point after sweeping all three matches. At number one, sophomores Victoria Vaynberg (Princeton, N.J.) and Catherine Zawadzki (Brooklyn, N.Y.) defended their number 11 east region ranking against the Bulldogs, winning 8-1. At number two, SU’s undefeated pairing of senior Wei-Ming Leong (Ipoh, Malaysia) and junior Katie Bramante (Endwell, N.Y.) pulled off an upset, beating Nix/Patil, the 15th ranked team in the east region, 8-4. Lipton and junior Carolina Huignard (Don Mills, Ontario) earned an 8-6 victory at flight three.

SU needed three wins in singles to pull off the victory against Yale and got a quick one from Zawadzki at number two, winning 6-4, 6-0. Lipton also earned a straight sets victory at number five, 6-2, 6-3. With the match knotted at 3-3, Vasilyeva’s match at number four would be the deciding factor. Vasilyeva won the opening set, 6-4, before dropping a marathon second set, losing 11-9 in a tiebreaker. In the third and decisive set, Vasilyeva pulled away for a 6-3 victory to clinch SU’s seventh straight victory.

The Orange will next be in action March 24-26 when it travels to Southern Mississippi to take part in the Eagle Classic. SU will play conference foe West Virginia in the opening round of the tournament on Friday at 1 p.m.