BLACKSBURG, Va. – Members of the Old Dominion women’s tennis team won four of the six singles flights, as well as the top doubles flight at the 2017 Hokie Fall Invite.
“Our coaching staff was very pleased with the way our girls competed and that was reflected with the numerous flights that we won in both singles and doubles,” said ODU Associate Head Coach Toni Bickford. “The team took a positive step forward as we had to deal with a lot of weather adversity, playing both indoors and outdoors during the weekend. Everyone worked very hard and our players' individual efforts have aided in raising the team’s standard as a whole. We are excited for getting better in the off-season and looking forward to resuming team competition in January.”
Nataliia Vlasova ran through the top singles flight, downing opponents from Miami (5-7, 6-1, 6-4), George Washington (6-4, 6-4) and JMU (6-4, 6-3).
Yulia Starodubtseva won the Leadership Flight, defeating opponents in straight sets from Virginia Tech (6-3, 6-2), VCU (6-4, 7-6(8) and JMU (6-3, 6-4).
Natalya Malenko also won all three of her singles matches in straight sets en route to winning the Sacrifice Flight, handling opponents from George Washington (7-5, 6-2), James Madison (6-3, 6-3) and Virginia Tech (6-1, 6-2).
Victoria Olivarez persevered through the Service Flight, beating opponents from VCU (7-5, 6-0), Miami (1-6, 6-3, 10-3) and Virginia Tech (4-6, 6-4, 10-7).
In the top doubles flight, Holly Hutchinson and Yulia Starodubtseva proved to be too much for tandems from Wofford (8-5), Miami (6-2) and then VCU (6-4) in the championship match.