SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Going 4-1 over a combined five matches Friday through Sunday,
Olivia Fermo paced the Navy women's tennis team in the fifth annual San Diego Veterans Tennis Classic at the University of San Diego's Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Complex.
Highlighted by Fermo taking home tournament MVP honors on Sunday following her third-straight singles wins of the weekend, the Midshipmen's four juniors put together a strong weekend that also saw
Anna Jordaan collect the SDVTC Sportsmanship Award while facing competition from the host Toreros, Fresno State and Loyola Marymount.
Opening the trip with doubles play on Friday, Navy suffered a pair of losses when Fermo and
Julia Lee fell to San Diego's Vilma Krebs-Hyllested and Kristina Nordikyan, 6-2, while Jordaan and captain
Manci Pal were defeated by the Toreros' Anni Puls and Maria Shmakova, 6-1.
Bouncing right back, Fermo scored a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Krebs-Hyllested to start singles action and Jordaan took Puls to three sets before dropping a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 match. For Lee, she was beaten by LMU's Anastasia Bozova, 6-3, 6-2, while Pal was edged by Shmakova in a 4-0 contest that she had to retire from.
Saturday opened with more doubles matches, as Fermo and Lee partnered to pick up a 6-2 win over Bozova and her LMU teammate Ada Piestrzynska, while Jordaan and Pal were knocked off by the other LMU pairing of Kim-Michaela Zahraj and Camilia Samel-Druz, 6-2.
Going into Saturday's singles slate, Fermo continued her run by beating Piestrzynska in a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 battle, but Jordaan fell to Samel-Druz, 6-0, 6-3, Pal suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat against Bozova and Lee was handed a 6-0, 6-0 loss by Zahraj.
Wrapping up the event with another round of singles matches Sunday morning, Fermo completed her singles sweep with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Fresno State's Andjela Lopicic, while Pal notched her first win of the weekend with a 6-3, 6-3 score against FSU's Gianna Mastro and Lee did the same by defeating Giulia Lodovici, 6-2, 6-4. Rounding out the group, Jordaan battled but fell, 6-1, 6-4, to the Bulldogs' Eliza Dunbar.
Fermo marks the second-straight Navy player to win the San Diego Veterans Tennis Classic MVP award, as
Emily Tannenbaum won the award at the 2022 and 2024 editions of the event. Jordaan becomes the second Navy player to win the SDVTC Sportsmanship Award as well, joining Sia Chaudry (2023).
Associate Head Coach Ale Pedergnana Comments
"We would like to thank all involved for making this trip a very special and memorable one for us every single year. Thank you to the tournament's lead sponsors, the Camaisa family, tournament founder Chas Mulcahy, the University of San Diego, USD coaches Ryan Keckley and Nadia Abdala and the SDVTC committee, all of whom helped to make this happen. Huge congratulations to Olivia for winning Tournament MVP, going undefeated in singles play, and Anna for winning the tournament's Sportsmanship award. We look forward to getting back at it next week and continuing to build on things learned from this past weekend. We also would like to personally thank Lt. Aimee Dervishian for opening up her home to our players and our friend Amanda Estrada for housing the coaching staff. We also thank all of our alumni - Catalina Rico, Amanda Cyr, Julia Zook, Cha Suriben, Rozel Hernandez, Rollie and Hazel Hernandez, Julie Dias and Mere Wydra - who all took time out of their busy schedules to spend time with and support the team in various ways."
Up Next
Navy will next head to the Commander-in-Chief's Challenge on Oct. 10-12 in Arlington, Va.
