Syracuse Opens Fall at Cissie Leary Invitational

PHILADELPHIA - The Syracuse women's tennis program starts its season in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the Cissie Leary Invitational, hosted by University of Pennsylvania this weekend. All six Syracuse student-athletes are set to compete.

The Teams
Joining Syracuse and host Penn at the Invitational will be Columbia, Princeton, Delaware, Drexel, Temple, and South Florida.

The Format
On Friday, Syracuse leads off the hidden dual-style event with three doubles matches against the Dragons of Drexel before squaring off with Penn for six singles matches. Action on Friday is set for a 9 a.m. start at Hect Tennis Center and Hamlin Tennis Courts.

Meet the Orange
Polina Kozyreva returns as a graduate student following her team-best, 18 victories last season. The Belgorod, Russia native helped the team sweep NJIT (Jan. 21), Buffalo (Feb. 13) and Coppin State (March 4) in the 2022-23 season.

Viktoriya Kanapatskaya is back after she began last spring season with four straight singles wins then proceeded to win six consecutive ACC matches. She had 15 singles victories last year and the Minsk, Belarus native will be entering her senior year.

Ines Fonte finished the 2022-2023 season with an overall singles record of 13-8 and will be back for her senior year. Hailing from Maia, Portugal, Fonte won seven consecutive singles matches at the start of the spring season.

Miyuka Kimoto enters her junior year following her 2022-2023 overall singles record of 10-16. The Oita, Japan native also helped the team to three sweeps against NJIT (Jan. 21), Buffalo (Feb. 13) and Coppin State (March 4) in the last season.

Shiori Ito returns after winning a team high eight doubles matches with Kanapatskaya in the 2022-2023 season. Ito, from Saitama, Japan, had the second-best win percentage of (.631) and 17 singles wins.

Anastasia Sysoeva will start her first year with the Orange after transferring from Florida. Sysoeva made it to round 16 in 2023 ITA Summer Championships.

Calla Joins the Squad
'Cuse welcomed Jacqueline Calla to the program as an assistant coach earlier this month. An MVP at Amherst College, Calla toured internationally with the Peruvian Fed Cup Team for seven years before returning to the United States. Prior to joining the Orange, she spent a year as a tennis professional at Carrollwood Country Club in Tampa, Florida.

About the Cissie Leary Invitational
The Cissie Leary Invitational, named to honor the former women's tennis head coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Leary was the head coach from 1977-1996, boasting a career record of 229-119. She had 16 winning seasons at the helm of the program, winning the EITA team championship in 1982. She also led Pennsylvania to five straight undefeated seasons from 1981-85. Leary was known for being active in the local community, volunteering for the Fight Against Drugs campaign and the Greater Philadelphia Kidney Transplant Association. After a long battle with scleroderma, Leary passed away in 1996 and the invitational has been held in her honor every year since.

Syracuse Opens Fall at Cissie Leary Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Ines Fonte

Shiori Ito

Viktoriya Kanapatskaya

Miyuka Kimoto

Polina Kozyreva

Anastasia Sysoeva

Syracuse University Athletics