Jessica Livianu Captures Second-Straight Singles Championship at Columbia Invitational

Friday, September 14

New York, N.Y. (Dick Savitt Tennis Center)

St. John's University

Columbia Invite

Jessica Livianu Captures Second-Straight Singles Championship at Columbia Invitational

9/17/2018 1:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis

The Red Storm finish their first fall tournament of the season with 8 wins

By: Nicholas Diamantis

Final Results

This weekend, the St. John's women's tennis team finished its first fall tournament of the season, winning a total of eight matches at the Columbia Invitational, hosted at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

The weekend was highlighted by junior Jessica Livianu, who continued her dominant form dating back to last season as she was crowned champion of the Brooklyn Singles Draw for the second consecutive year. Livianu finished with a perfect 3-0 record in the draw, never allowing an opponent to take her to a decisive third set. Livianu defeated Hofstra's Michal Kaplan (6-1, 6-0) in the quarterfinals and Melissa Sakar of Columbia (6-3, 6-0) in the semifinals before beating Jennifer Kerr from Columbia University (6-4, 7-5) in the final to claim the victory.

The weekend proved to be a solid tune-up for Livianu as the junior will head to Malibu, Calif., to compete in the Oracle/ITA Masters Tournament at Pepperdine University and the Malibu Racquet Club, next weekend. Last season, the reigning-BIG EAST Women's Tennis Player of the Year became the first player from the conference to reach the quarterfinals of the Oracle ITA Masters Tournament.

In other singles matchups, senior Olaya Inclan Solis finished 1-1 in the Manhattan Singles Tournament. Solis easily won her quarterfinal match (6-3, 6-1) over Fordham's Maia Balce before losing a tough semifinals matchup against Columbia's Akankska Bhan (6-4, 6-4).

Sophomores Kajsa Stegrell and Gabriela Tenorio each picked up quarterfinal wins in the Queens and Manhattan Singles draws respectively, but would go on to lose tough matches in their semifinal contests.

Junior Milka Genkova fell in her lone singles appearance in the Queens Draw to Harvard's Chelsea Williams in a closely-contested three set match (6‐1, 3‐6, 6‐3).

On the doubles side, the pairing of Livianu and Genkova finished the weekend with a 1-1 record in the Doubles A draw, defeating Ana Leonte and Anna Grigoryan of LIU-Brooklyn, (8-3).

In the Doubles 2 draw, St. John's saw the pair of Stegrell and Tenorio reach the semifinals, winning their quarterfinal matchup over LIU-Brooklyn's Jessica Brzozowska and Sasha Bollweg, (8-4).

St. John's continues their fall slate when they travel up to West Point, N.Y. for the Army Invitational, hosted at the Lichtenberg and Malek Tennis Centers from Sept. 28-30.