Spring Break
The Daily OrangeTennis | Orange does damage before exit
By Kelvin Ang
Posted: 10/27/05, 12:28 AM EST Section: Sports
The Syracuse tennis team entered the fray at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association East Regional Championships last weekend and dealt a few blows to the competition before bowing out.
The tournament, hosted by Army, featured the top players from Division I schools across the region.
The Orange's top pairing of Victoria Vaynberg and Catherine "Kasia" Zawadzki reached the quarterfinals of the doubles draw before the tournament's second seed, Marianne Baker and Ramona But of Maryland, edged them narrowly, 8-6.
In singles action, Vaynberg lost in the third round to sixth-seeded Megan Muth of William and Mary. Muth would go on to reach the final of the championships, which has yet to be played.
Syracuse coach Mac Gifford lauded his top doubles team's performance throughout the tournament and especially in their quarterfinals match.
"They played very well against a very good team," Gifford said. "Kasia and Victoria will win many, many doubles matches for us. Our doubles is always going to be one of our strong points."
Both Gifford and the players described the quarterfinals match as a nail-biter because the pair from Maryland won by pulling off some amazing shots at the end of the match.
"At the end, it was super close," Vaynberg said. "It was all ridiculous, long, crazy points."
Vaynberg described one of those points by hopping backwards and waving her arm at an imaginary ball hit right to her feet.
"We would hit it at them here and they would hit it over," she said. "We would go, 'What the hell?'"
The duo upset the eighth-seeded pair of Yuri Kurashima and Ana Maslesa from Temple in the previous round. However, the players singled out their second-round match against Alina Balasa and Dana Gordon from Rutgers as the turning point of the tournament for them. They played badly to begin the match, but rallied to win it, Zawadzki said.
"My plan was to string them along and turn it around right at the end," Zawadzki joked.
The tournament, hosted by Army, featured the top players from Division I schools across the region.
The Orange's top pairing of Victoria Vaynberg and Catherine "Kasia" Zawadzki reached the quarterfinals of the doubles draw before the tournament's second seed, Marianne Baker and Ramona But of Maryland, edged them narrowly, 8-6.
In singles action, Vaynberg lost in the third round to sixth-seeded Megan Muth of William and Mary. Muth would go on to reach the final of the championships, which has yet to be played.
Syracuse coach Mac Gifford lauded his top doubles team's performance throughout the tournament and especially in their quarterfinals match.
"They played very well against a very good team," Gifford said. "Kasia and Victoria will win many, many doubles matches for us. Our doubles is always going to be one of our strong points."
Both Gifford and the players described the quarterfinals match as a nail-biter because the pair from Maryland won by pulling off some amazing shots at the end of the match.
"At the end, it was super close," Vaynberg said. "It was all ridiculous, long, crazy points."
Vaynberg described one of those points by hopping backwards and waving her arm at an imaginary ball hit right to her feet.
"We would hit it at them here and they would hit it over," she said. "We would go, 'What the hell?'"
The duo upset the eighth-seeded pair of Yuri Kurashima and Ana Maslesa from Temple in the previous round. However, the players singled out their second-round match against Alina Balasa and Dana Gordon from Rutgers as the turning point of the tournament for them. They played badly to begin the match, but rallied to win it, Zawadzki said.
"My plan was to string them along and turn it around right at the end," Zawadzki joked.
