Finals loss doesn't dull Novaceanu's strong finish

Led by the hot racket of sophomore Andreea Novaceanu, the UB women's tennis team played some of the best Division I competition in the country last weekend at a three-day tournament in Dartmouth.

Novaceanu came into the tournament as the number-two seed in the flight A brackets and did not disappoint. The sophomore won three of four matches on the day before losing to the number-one seeded Stephanie Schniffer of Harvard by scores of 6-3 and 6-2.

On her way to the finals, Novaceanu downed Hana Chovanova of Stony Brook in two sets, Mollie Edison of Cornell in three sets and Sonia Ruzimovsky of Ohio State in two.

"Last year I put her in the flight B and this year I bumped her up," said head coach Kathy Twist about Novaceanu. "She played very well."

Also in the flight A for the Bulls was senior Kristen Ortman. Ortman earned an upset in her first match over the number-nine seeded Barbora Blahutiakova of St. John's University in three-sets by scores of 6-3, 1-6 and 10-7. In the round of 16, Ortman hit the wall when she faced Anne Catherine Valle of Stony Brook.

Valle knocked Ortman out of the tournament as she took home a tiebreaker victory over the Bull with scores of 6-4, 3-6 and 10-8.

"She was a very good player but Kristen beat her," Twist said about Blahutiakova. "(Ortman) got to round sixteen and that was great. Her and Valle were pretty even and Kristen even had a match point here. It was a good match."

The lone UB representative in the flight B tournament was junior Maggie Nenova. Nenova won her first round match over Liyang Wang of Cornell in a tiebreaker match with set scores of 2-6, 6-0 and 10-8.

Nenvoa stretched her round-of-sixteen match into three sets as well, but was unable to pull out the victory. She lost in a long tiebreaker by a score of 12-10 to Ashley Harvey of Long Island University.

"The third set tiebreaker was outstanding," Twist said. "Usually you get to ten but you have to win by two. It was like 9-8, 10-11. It was constantly back-and-forth advantage. She played really well."

In doubles competition the Bulls didn't see any success in the win column. Arreal Dujsic and Dana Gordon of Rutgers beat the team of Nenvova and sophomore Natalie Dean 8-6 while Chovanova and Sandy Wijeratne of Stony Brook downed junior Katrin Fischer and sophomore Tina Jacob by a score of 8-2.

"We got beat in the first round here," Twist said. "It was good competition and we are working on our doubles. We are strong singles players and doubles is kind of a different game. It involves a lot of different shot selection. You need more variety of play and very smart play in doubles."

The Dartmouth tournament came as a bit of tennis marathon for the Bulls as they were forced to keep their energy up over the course of a long three days.

"It was crazy we were there at six o'clock in the morning and then we had to wait until eight to play," Twist said. "With these tournaments it's a lot of waiting and it's tough on players. They have to make sure they stay loose and rested and hydrated for the next match. It's a grueling tournament."

As an invitational last weekend's tournament draws the best in Division I tennis. Competing in a field of 16 teams, none of which were Mid-American Conference opponents, Twist said that her players are honing their skills for spring duals.

"I could go to little tournaments and just wipe everybody, but that isn't going to help us in the MAC," Twist said. "I wanted to show our team and myself what they have to do in the MAC tournament."

Overall, Twist said she is proud of the way her team performed in a tight field of tough competitors.

"I am very happy," Twist said. "To beat some Big East and some Ivy League teams and to be just invited to this tournament, that's a real honor. I always say you're a loser if you don't learn anything. Even with the losses we took in doubles we are going to go back over them and say these are the things we need to work on."

The Dartmouth Invitational marks the end of the women's fall tournament schedule. The Bulls will now move into winter conditioning before starting their dual match schedule in the spring.