Oct. 2, 2009
NORFOLK, Va. -- ODU's Diana Ivanova and Marija Citic paired together Friday to bring home a doubles title at the Old Dominion Collegiate Invitational, leading the way for the Lady Monarchs. Rookie Juliana Pires and Irina Dementyeva reached the finals in their flight, but the match was not played.
Citic and Ivanova defeated Liberty's Hannah Fick and Valeriya Klintsevich in the opening round of the C flight, 8-5, before making quick work of Pittsburgh's Gabrielle Catanzariti and Karma Parbhu in the quarterfinals, 8-1. In the semifinals, the Lady Monarch tandem won an 8-6 match over Howard University's Anne Akhimien and Ashley Moore to advance to the final. In the championship match, Ivanova and Citic dispatched Campbell's Anais Gomar and Blanca Saenz in an 8-4 final.
In B flight action, Pires and Dementyeva posted an 8-2 win over Howard's Michelle Brown and Michele Gee before advancing with an 8-5 victory against Campbell's Borislava Nikolova and Lisa Sutton. In the semifinals, the ODU pair won an 8-4 match over Emma Brooks and Elise Leizerovich from the CAA's Drexel University. They were scheduled to face Liberty's Jordan Jenkins and Nadia Solomon-Burgess inthe finals.
The men's team fielded just one doubles team in the tournament, as Krzystof Muzalewski and Alfredo Rodriguez paired. The team lost the opening round match to Liberty's Louis Steyn and Ben Wirth, but bounced back with a consolation round victory over Howard's Chris Brown and Eric Chavous. In the consy semifinals, the ODU tandem had to withdraw after an injury.
The Monarch tennis teams will return to action on Saturday to start singles play. The tournament will continue throughout Saturday and Sunday and results can be found here.
ODU Results:
Men's Doubles B:
Opening Round - Steyn/Wirth (Liberty) def. Muzalewski/Rodriguez (ODU) 8-3
Consolation Opening Round - Muzalewski/Rodriguez (ODU) def. Brown/Chavous (Howard) 8-6
Consolation Semifinals - Blumenfield/Levinski (GWU) def. Muzalewski/Rodriguez (ODU) Inj.
Women's Doubles B:
Opening Round - Dementyeva/Pires (ODU) def. Brown/Gee (Howard) 8-2
Quarterfinals - Dementyeva/Pires (ODU) def. Nikolova/Sutton (Campbell) 8-5
Semifinals - Dementyeva/Pires (ODU) def. Brooks/Leizerovich (Drexel) 8-4
Finals - Dementyeva/Pires (ODU) vs. Jenkins/Solomon-Burgess (Liberty) Not Played
Women's Doubles C:
Opening Round - Ivanova/Citic (ODU) def. Fick/Klintsevich (Liberty) 8-5
Quarterfinals - Ivanova/Citic (ODU) def. Catanzariti/Parbhu (Pitt) 8-1
Semifinals - Ivanova/Citic (ODU) def. Akhimien/Moore (Howard) 8-6
Finals - Ivanova/Citic (ODU) def. Gomar/Saenz (Campbell) 8-4