St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Columbia Invitational
St. John's Concludes Play At Columbia Invitational
9/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
NEW YORK - Junior Nevena Selakovic was one of the St. John's women's tennis team's top performers this weekend as the Red Storm wrapped up play at the annual Columbia Invitational this weekend. Selakovic won three straight-set matches to reach the finals of the tournament's top-singles flight.
Selakovic opened the tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Penn's Srinidhi Raghavan, and advanced to the semifinal round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Monica Yajima of Fairfield. Red Storm sophomore Diamond Adams won her opening match in the same flight by a 6-1, 6-4 margin, and then advanced to the semifinals with a win over second-seeded Renata Arshavskaya of Columbia to set up a semifinal meeting with Selakovic. Selakovic ended up pulling out a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Adams to advance to the finals for a meeting with the tournament's top seed, Sol Eskenazi of Penn. Eskenazi defeated Selakovic 6-1, 6-2 to claim the tournament title.
Senior Joanna Zwirbulis also played in the tournament's top flight, but dropped a thrilling opener to Columbia's Katrina Kovacevic 6-2, 6-7 (3), 1-6. Falling to the consolation bracket, Zwirbulis rebounded to win two more matches to claim the consolation bracket title. Zwirbulis defeated two Hofstra competitors to win the championship.
Red Storm newcomer Lyubov Pogirbnyak won her opening match of flight "B" over Hofstra's Paige Polizois by a 6-4, 6-0 margin, but fell to the bracket's top seed, Penn's Alex Ion, in the quarterfinals 6-0, 6-0. In other flight "B" action, seniors Nakita Austin and Ece Firat both reached the consolation bracket semifinals. Austin topped Hofstra's Polizois 6-0, 6-1, but the other semifinal matchup was never played.
On the doubles side, all three St. John's duos lost their opening matches, but Selakovic and Zwirbulis teamed up to reach the consolation finals, which included an 8-4 win over teammates Austin and Adams. The final round of the doubles consolation was not played.
The St. John's women's tennis team returns to the courts for the annual USTA Collegiate Invitational at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., from Oct. 8-10, before concluding its fall season at the USTA/ITA Regionals in New Haven, Conn.
