ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Starting its season off strong, the Navy women's tennis team claimed titles in three singles flights and a pair of doubles draws on Sunday, closing out the three-day Bill & Sandra Moore Invitational at the Brigade Sports Complex.
 
Leading the way was freshman Olivia Fermo, who earned the Flight "D" singles title and partnered with fellow freshman Makaila Cheng to claim the doubles "B" draw, while junior Emily Tannenbaum dominated the top singles flight, senior Samantha Johns notched her first career flight victory in the "B" singles bracket and the duo of junior Sylvia Eklund and freshman Anna Jordaan grabbed the "C" doubles title.
 
Doubles Recap
Pairing up two 2023 All-Patriot League selections in the "A" doubles draw, Tannenbaum and sophomore Sia Chaudry used an opening-round bye and a 6-0 win over Lehigh's Audrey Harrington and Hamsa Javagal to reach the semifinals, defeating FDU's Gauri Bhagia and Alena Kubanova in the semis, before falling by a 6-3 score to Anastasia Gubanova and Abbie Tyler of St. Bonaventure in the finals. Also in the "A" doubles flight were junior Kate Lee and Parvathi Shanker, who overcame an opening-round loss to FDU's Valentina Silva and Mireia Turro with a pair of consolation wins before losing in the consolation finals to George Mason's Brooklyn Siegel and Lauren Splett, 6-4.
 
The "B" doubles flight had Cheng and Fermo notch wins over the Monmouth duo of Lauren Landstrom and Lenien Jamir, George Mason's Ruju Chauhan and Maitree Root and the Bonnies' Cirkeline Lundberg and Isabella Venter to reach the finals, then defeating Namie Isago and Anastasia Lim of FDU, 6-2, to claim the flight crown. Additionally, the duo of Johns and freshman Manci Pal battled back after a quarterfinal loss against Monmouth's Hana McKinney and Jordyn Pax to claim three victories and win the consolation bracket.
 
In the "C" flight, Eklund and Jordaan teamed up to knock off FDU's Katsiaryna Kostsina and Margherita Viglietti in the quarterfinals before a injury retirement from a George Mason pairing put them in the finals, where the Mids scored a 6-3 victory over the Bonnies' Kelly Barnes and Sienna Smith. Elsewhere in the flight, senior captain Stella Ribaudo and freshman Julia Lee partnered for a win against Mary Washington's Evelyn Snyder and Madison McCarty, but then fell to Barnes and Smith in the semifinals.
 
Singles Recap
Tannebaum opened the "A" draw with wins over Mary Washington's Amanda Hagino and George Mason's Cenan Liu, while Ribaudo defeated Tyler and Lim to set up an all-Navy semifinal match. Picking up a 6-2, 6-0 win over Ribaudo, Tannenbaum then drew Chaudry in the finals after Chaudry beat Monmouth's Lana Brezanin, Gubanova and Binghamton's Natalia Aruj on the other side of the bracket. Tannenbaum once again defeated her Navy teammate, claiming the final match by a 6-1, 6-0 score over Chaudry.
 
The "B" flight saw Johns tally wins over McKinney, Venter and Isago to set up a final against Valentina Silva, where Johns defeated the FDU player by a 6-0, 6-1 score. In the bracket as well was Kate Lee, who got an opening-round win against Binghamton's Caterina Casadei before falling to Silva in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-3.
 
In the "C" draw, Pal posted wins against Nitya Vyas of Binghamton, Landstrom and Kostsina to earn a place in the final match, where she was edged by Chauhan in a tiebreaker (7-4, 4-6, 10-8). Shanker also made a run in the bracket, beating Lehigh's Hannah Letzer before falling to Chauhan via a tiebreaker in the quarterfinals (2-6, 7-5, 10-7), while Cheng retired from the bracket with an injury in her opening singles match.
 
The "D" flight had Fermo easily win her first two matches against UMW's Olivia Geoghegan and Binghamton's Samantha Jaros before defeating Lehigh's Anushka Dania in a semifinal tiebreaker (6-4, 3-6, 10-6) to send the Navy freshman to the finals. With Eklund and Jordaan grabbing two wins each in the main draw, the two squared off in the other semifinal, as Eklund pulled out a 6-3, 7-5 victory over teammate. In the finals, Fermo continued her great weekend with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Eklund.
 
In the "E" draw, freshman Carly Mew claimed her first collegiate win with a 7-6, 1-6, 10-5 victory over Monmouth's Madison Mills before falling to Kelly Barnes in the semifinals, while Julia Lee dropped her opening match before forfeiting her consolation match due to injury.
 
Head Coach Keith Puryear Quote
"This was a great start to the season. Congratulations to all the flight winners and to each person from Navy who battled this weekend. We achieved most of our goals for the weekend, but we must continue to do the work to improve the small things we will focus on moving forward."
 
Up Next
Navy will send two members of its team to the prestigious Milwaukee Tennis Classic on Sept. 22-24.