Andreea Novaceanu showed poise and precision on the court when she won the "B" draw at Dartmouth's annual Big Green Tennis Invitational this past weekend.
Novaceanu defeated Lauren Leo from St. John's University to take home the singles title in the "B" draw.
"She was just outstanding," said Bulls' Head Coach Kathy Twist. "She beat her (Leo) decisively. I didn't see any sloppy points from her at all."
The victory was especially sweet for Novaceanu, as it came after a tough loss in the second round of the ITA regionals last week. Twist wanted Novaceanu to work on keeping her composure on the court, especially when she was not getting the calls that she wanted.
"One of the things she was working on was trying to keep her composure throughout every set for every point," Twist said. "For this tournament, I didn't see her waver at all. It was every point she played."
Novaceanu defeated the number two seed in the semifinals of the "B" draw, and then completed her run by defeating the number one seed in the finals.
While the Bulls' success in the invitational was essentially limited to the singles "B" draw, the experience that the players gained from the competition cannot easily be overlooked as there was great depth in every draw.
"This is our second year in this tournament, and this year there was great depth," said Twist. "Everybody had a tough match in the first round, all the events: the "A", the "B" and the doubles."
Besides the Bulls, the other schools represented in the tournament were Dartmouth, St. John's, Brown, Connecticut, Syracuse and Boston University.
Most of these schools are perennially strong and expect victory in the majority of their matches.
"There were a lot of Ivy League schools that are expected to win," Twist said. "This is a very difficult tournament."
For the most part, the Bulls were unsuccessful in their initial matches at the tournament. Besides Novaceanu the only Bull to win her first round match was Kristen Ortman, who won her first match, but lost her second match.
In the doubles draw, Kristen Ortman and Miglena Nenova were able to win their first match, but then followed with a loss to a pair from Dartmouth by a decisive 8-4 margin.
The depth in this tournament was so impressive that even the competition in the consolation draws proved to be too difficult for the Bulls to overcome.
"They (the consolation draws) were still pretty good, because everyone that was shuffled into the consolation draw was still tough," said Twist.
Even though most of the Bulls found themselves in the consolation draw, each continued to play out every point. The experience of playing in the consolation draw will be important in the long run for the Bulls. It will ultimately lead the Bulls in being able to continue to improve as the team goes into its spring schedule and as the team begins to face its Mid-American Conference opponents.
"We go out to win every match we play with the idea that we're going to learn from every match," said Twist.
For UB, this was the final tournament in which the women's team will participate until the spring semester. The players will have to remember the promise they displayed when they were competing against top-flight opponents as they go into their MAC schedule, beginning in February.
Coach Twist, despite the results posted from most of her players this fall, remains optimistic about the upcoming MAC season.
"I'm really happy about the way they played and the way they're performing right now," she said. "The major thing is to stay focused on our conditioning and keep up with our tennis so we can come back even stronger in the spring."
