Syracuse Advances at Lady Eagle Classic

Friday, March 24

Eagle Classic

1:00 p.m.

Syracuse University

West Virginia

Wei-Ming Leong closed out the match by winning at flight six singles.

3/25/2006 10:25:02 AM | Tennis

Box Score

HATTIESBURG, MISS. -- The Lady Eagle Classic in Hattiesburg, Miss. began with quarterfinal action on Friday with the Syracuse Orange advancing to the semifinals with a 4-0 win against West Virginia. The Orange improves to 10-3 (3-0 BIG EAST) with the win, marking the fourth straight 10-win season for SU for the first time in school history. Awaiting Syracuse in the semifinals is host school Southern Mississippi. Senior Wei-Ming Leong won both in singles and doubles to move her up to 16^th on the SU all-time wins list with 125 for her career.

SU won the doubles point for the 11^th straight dual match against the Mountaineers. Sophomores Victoria Vaynberg (Princeton, N.J.) and Catherine Zawadzki (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won at number one doubles, 8-5, while juniors Ashley Lipton (Saratoga, Calif.) and Carolina Huignard (Don Mills, Ontario) earned an 8-1 victory to put SU on the board early. Leong and junior Katie Bramante (Endwell, N.Y.) kept their 12-match winning streak alive as their match was not completed after playing to a 7-7 tie when the doubles point was decided.

Lipton quickly kept the momentum going for Syracuse in singles play by picking up a 6-1, 6-1 victory at number five. Freshman Maria Vasilyeva (St. Petersburg, Russia) added another routine win, winning 6-1, 6-2 at number four singles. Finishing off the match was Leong who won 6-2, 6-2 at flight six to give the Orange its fourth point in the dual.

Singles flights one thru three did not finish before the outcome of the match was decided. Vaynberg lost the first set in her match at number one, 7-5, but had regained her composure and got off to a 3-1 second. Zawadzki lost her first set, 6-3, but rebounded to win the second 6-2 and was all-square at 1-1 in the third set. Bramante used a tiebreaker to win the first set and trailed 2-1 in the second.

SU will now move on to play Southern Mississippi in the semifinals on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. In the other semifinal, Troy will take on Arkansas-Little Rock. Arkansas-Little Rock defeated Lamar, 5-0, in Friday’s other quarterfinal.