Oct. 18, 2004
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Three Lady Monarchs made finals appearances at the Hampton Roads Collegiate Invitational held at Huntington Park in Newport News, Virginia over the weekend. Sophomore Fernada Luiz (Nova Lima, Brazil) led the way capturing the Flight B-1 singles bracket.
Previously, Luiz defeated Romana Bucu of Longwood, 6-0, 6-4 to open play in the Round of 16 in the Flight B-1 singles bracket. Luiz then picked up a 6-2, 6-3 decision over Hampton's Elena Besedova in the quarterfinals.
On Sunday, she advanced to the finals with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over CAA rival Liz Perlow of Delaware. She went on to capture the title with a 6-0, 6-2 straight set victory over Kendall Swenson of George Washington. With the title, Luiz improved to 5-1 in fall tournament play.
Although junior Kerstin Endlich (Neustadt, Germany) fell in the finals of the Flight A singles bracket, the junior picked up an impressive victory knocking off the bracket's top seed, Olga Borisova of Virginia Commonwealth, in the quarterfinals. Borisova was ranked 48th in the Preseason ITA Poll.
Endlich began play by moving into the Round of 16 of the Flight A singles bracket right away after Richmond's Beatrice Grasu withdrew because of injury. Endlich sailed through the Round of 16 with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over UMBC's Aimee Lim. In her quarterfinal match-up, Endlich defeated William & Mary's Megan Moulton-Levy , 7-5, 6-4.
On Sunday, Endlich downed Borisova in three sets, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 1-0, to advance to the finals. In her finals appearance, Endlich fell 6-0, 6-3 to Lena Sherbakov of William & Mary. Shervakov, seeded second in the tournament, was ranked 82nd in the Preaseason ITA Poll.
Also making a finals appearance was freshman Barbara Costa (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) in the Flight B-2 bracket. Costa opened play with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Radford's Caroline Downs in the Round of 16 and picked up a 6-4, 6-1 win over Alex de Guzman of William & Mary in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she gave up just one game en-route to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Liz Winokur of Georgetown. Her run ended however in the finals with a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Lucia Kapisinkska of Hampton University.