St. John's University Athletics
Lauren Leo Announces Fall Tournament Schedule
9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
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Fall 2016 Schedule
Downloadable Schedule (PDF)
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's Women's Tennis Head Coach Lauren Leo released the Red Storm's 2016 tournament schedule on Thursday. The tilt features five individual tournaments to be played over the course of the next three months.
St. John's opens up the tournament season close to home as it prepares for the Stony Brook Invitational on Sept. 9-11. Held at the University Courts in Stony Brook, N.Y., this is the team's second appearance at this invite in as many years. Last season, the Johnnies swept finals victories in all four of the singles flights and one of the two doubles flights.
"Our fall schedule will be both challenging and rewarding. It will help us measure where the team is and what we need to do in order to be prepared for the spring season. There are some challenging tournaments such as the Columbia Invitational and the Penn Invitational," said Leo. "We start off at Stony Brook, which is a good warm-up tournament and it will get more difficult from there. I'm excited to see what my players can do in the fall season."
St. John's will stay in the Empire State throughout September as the Johnnies also have the Columbia Invitational lined up for Sept. 23-25, at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center in New York.
Prior to fall postseason play, St. John's will play at the UPENN Invite on Sept. 30 - Oct. 2, at the Hect Tennis Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Coach Leo has two fall postseason tournaments scheduled: the ITA Regional Championships in West Haven, Conn., on Oct. 20-24, and the ITA National Championships scheduled for Nov. 3-6, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
Coming off a 14-5 overall record and undefeated record at home (7-0), the Johnnies return seven starters from last year's team including three student-athletes who racked up 20 plus wins in spring play (Anna Morozova, Delia Arranz and Zofia Stanisz). Morozova was named to the All-BIG EAST Team for the second consecutive season after winning a total of 30 regular-season matches.
"The first thing that jumps to mind about this team is the amount of leadership and experience we have," added Leo. "I'm expecting the team's level of experience will help us get prepared for our ultimate goal, which is to perform at a very high mark in the BIG EAST."
Leo also welcomes one incoming freshman to the team, Jessica Livianu, a blue-chip recruit from Brooklyn, N.Y. In June, the Tennis Recruiting Network announced that the St. John's women's tennis team had the top-ranked 2016 recruiting class among BIG EAST conference programs, based on commitments reported before May 23.
"I'm expecting Jessica to perform at a high level. She had a lot of experience at the junior circuit and she now will get accumulated to college tennis, which is more of a team event," said Leo. "She's able and ready to step up to this challenge and I'm excited to have her as a member of this team."
For all the latest news on the St. John's women's tennis team, log on to RedStormSports.com and follow the team (@StJohnsTennis) on Twitter. You can join the conversation with the hashtag, #SJUWTen. If you would like to be added to the St. John's Women's Tennis mailing list, send an email to stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with the subject line "Women's Tennis Mailing List".
