ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team started its 2019 fall slate by winning all three doubles flights and a singles flight at the Bill and Sandra Moore Invitational this past weekend at the Brigade Sports Complex.
Navy's doubles teams of
Amanda Cyr (Jr., Cary, N.C.) and
Kaylah Hodge (Sr., Upper Marlboro, Md.),
Miranda Deng (Jr., North Potomac, Md.) and
Jillian Taggart (Fr., Fair Oaks, Calif.), along with
Tina Li (Jr., Wexford, Pa.) and
Irene Norman (Fr., Aurora, Ohio) all picked up tournament victories.
Danika Kahatapitiya (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) also won the singles E flight for the Midshipmen.
"It was a good start to the season," head coach
Keith Puryear said. "I thought this was a really good start for us to make seven of the eight finals, along with having Navy versus Navy in the B flight doubles and E flight singles. All throughout the tournament, we had good results that bode well for us in the direction we are moving. Overall, I thought we showed a lot of grit, a lot of tenacity and that is going to bode well for us as we continue through the rest of the season."
In the doubles A flight, Cyr and Hodge were forced to win seven games in each the quarterfinals and semifinals. Their first match was won in a tiebreaker against Penelope Abreu and Amelia Haley of St. Bonaventure, 7-6 (7-5). Then in the semifinals, Cyr and Hodge won 7-5 over Fairleigh Dickinson's Aleksandra Vorozheikina and Alena Kubanova. The championship match of the draw saw Navy's duo upend Cayla Koch and Dax Seidlin of Bucknell, 6-4.
Aimee Dervishian (Sr., Milton, Ga.) and
Annalise Klopfer (So., Palm Harbor, Fla.) also competed in the doubles A flight, where they won their first match, 6-2, but lost in the semifinals to Koch and Seidlin, 6-2.
The Midshipmen had three teams in the doubles B flight with all three pairs making it to the semifinals. On the upper half of the draw, Deng and Taggart rolled into the finals winning 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4 over their first three matches to earn a spot in the championship. The bottom half of the bracket featured an all-Navy semifinal where
Kacey Moore (So., Wellington, Fla.) and Kahatapitiya faced off against
Katreina Corpuz (So., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) and
Meghana Komarraju (So., Vienna, Va.). In a tightly contested match, Corpuz and Komarraju outlasted Moore and Kahatapitiya in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-3).
With another all-Navy contest set up in the finals of the doubles B flight, Deng and Taggart won a narrow 7-6 (7-5) match to win the bracket.
Li and Norman won all three of its matches in the C flight to complete the doubles sweep for the Midshipmen. The Navy pair first won 6-0 against a mixed doubles team of Niagara's Lila Trunzo and Monmouth's Zayna Muhammad. In the semifinals, Li and Norman won 7-5 against Aria Ragas and Courtni Stewart of Howard. The championship match saw the Midshipmen grab a 6-2 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson's Aishwarya Gandotra and Smriti Singh.
In the singles brackets, Navy had finalists in the four of the five draws including an all-Navy final in the E flight. The singles E flight pitted Li and Kahatapitiya against one another for the title. Prior to the final, Li had dropped just one set, which came in the semifinals, while Kahatapitiya won all three of her matches in straight sets. Navy's senior captain continued the straight-set run as Kahatapitiya edged out Li in the final, 6-0, 6-4.
The singles E flight also featured Norman, where she won her opening round affair against Trunzo, 6-0, 6-0. However, Norman dropped a three-set match to Anshika Singh of Lehigh, 0-6, 6-4, 10-4.
At the top flight of singles, Hodge made her second appearance in the finals as she worked her way all the way to the championship. Hodge won a pair of three-set contests en route to the final. However, Hodge's run ended against Kubanova in a 6-3, 6-2 contest. Kubanova knocked out all three of Navy's individuals in the flight. Moore lost a 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 13-11 match in the semifinals to the Fairleigh Dickinson freshman, while Klopfer suffered a 6-4, 7-5 loss to Kubanova.
In the singles B flight, Komarraju, Cyr and Corpuz all started the singles portion of their weekend with victories. In the second round of the draw, both Cyr and Komarraju bowed out of the tournament and just missed an all-Navy semifinal in the draw. After earning back-to-back straight-set victories and only dropping four games, Corpuz suffered a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Seidlin – who went on to win the flight – in the tournament semifinals.
The pair of Taggart and Dervishian represented Navy in the singles C flight. Taggart won a trio of straight-set contests to punch her ticket into the finals. In her first three matches, Taggart did not drop more than three games in a single set. However, in the final round, Taggart's roll was halted by Lehigh's Junmoke James in a 6-2, 6-1 defeat. Dervishian won her opening round match against Bucknell's Jill Auteri, 6-1, 6-3, but Dervishian lost in the quarterfinals to Shreya Guila of Fairleigh Dickinson, 2-6, 6-4, 10-6.
Deng was Navy's lone competitor in the singles D flight and she battled her way into the finals. Deng dropped just one game in the first round but was pushed to a third-set tiebreak in her final three matches. Following wins in the semifinals and finals, Deng rallied from a set down to force the tiebreaking third set but lost the match, 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 to Smriti Singh.
With the four flight victories, Navy has now captured 17 flight victories over the 11 years of the Bill and Sandra Moore Invitational. The Midshipmen have won 10 singles flights and seven doubles flights.
Navy is set to compete at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic where Hodge and Klopfer will represent the Midshipmen next weekend.
