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University of Akron
Cornell Invitational
Women's Tennis Wins Flight A Doubles, Flight C Singles at Cornell Invitational
September 15 | Women's Tennis
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ITHACA, N.Y. – The pair of Olga Shkundina and Shannon Newnes won flight A doubles, and Madison Cohen claimed the C singles bracket to highlight the Akron women's tennis team's performance at the season opening Cornell Invitational this weekend. The three-day event was held at Reis Tennis Center.
The junior and freshman team of Shkundina and Newnes, respectively, earned an 8-4 win over Albany's Cat Crummey and Paulina Torres, a 9-8 (5) victory against Cleveland State's Alex Bush and Princess Gbadamosi, and topped Cornell's Dena Tanenbaum and Laila Judeh 9-7 to advance to the final. They took the top flight by default, due to injury, versus Cornell's Marika Cusick and Alex D'Ascenzo.
"I'm extremely happy for Olga and Shannon for winning the A flight doubles title," Akron head coach Brandon Padgett said. "They defeated some quality teams along the way."
Cohen battled through the C singles bracket, scoring a pair of three-set victories on her way to the title. The sophomore defeated Lehigh's Ali Kaminetsky 6-1, 6-4 in the opening round, then topped Albany's Alba Sala 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (5) in the quarterfinal and Cleveland State's Alex Bush 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semis. She got the best of CSU's Ellen Folkers 6-1, 6-0 in the title contest.
"Madison's hard work this past summer paid off for her, with her sweep of the C singles flight," Padgett said. "I couldn't be happier for her."
The Zips advanced players to the semifinals of both flights A and B singles.
In A singles, sophomore Martina Zerbola got the best of Lehigh's Jenai Bilimoria 5-7, 6-0, 1-0 (8) and Cleveland State's Lauren Golick 6-4, 6-2, but was forced to pull out of her semifinal contest versus Cornell's Ryan Young due to injury.
In B singles, senior Ksenia Berestetska won a pair of three-set contests, 1-6, 6-0, 1-0 (7) against Lehigh's Jamie Campisi and 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 over Cleveland State's Victoria Bensimon. She lost in the semifinal 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 to Cornell's Alex D'Ascenzo.
"We showed just how truly young we are this weekend, and that there is still a great deal of work to be done," Padgett said. "We also showed that we still have the ability to step up and win in big situations. Our freshmen received some valuable lessons this weekend on what it takes to play at this level, and we will continue to work hard each day in order to better prepare ourselves for the spring season."
The program's 2013-14 roster lists four freshmen, two sophomores, one junior and one senior.
Akron will be in Philadelphia on Sept. 20-22 to compete in the Cissie Leary Invitational, hosted by Penn.
Players Mentioned
