October 24, 2009

Bulls Have Successful First Day At ITA Regionals

NEW HAVEN, CT – The University at Buffalo began play at the ITA Regionals on Saturday afternoon and had one doubles team move into the Round of 16, while all three singles players are still alive in the competition. The regionals are being played on the campus of Yale University.

In doubles play, UB's top team of Denise Harijanto and Diana Popescu received a number four ranking in the tournament and won their opening match against Jessica Ahn and Erin Colton of Army, 8-3. In the round of 32, Harijanto and Popescu defeated Erin McCarthy and Kelsey Raynor of Marist, 8-0. The Bulls are now in the round of 16 where they square off against Boston University's Vivien Laszloffy and Monika Mical on Sunday Morning. UB's other doubles team of Adi Petrova and Tamara Markovic lost a tough opening match to Simone Kalhorn and C.C. Sardinha of Syracuse, 9-8 (9).

In singles action, Harijanto and Popescu both picked up opening round byes as they were seeded as the seventh and 16th players in the tournament, respectively. Petrova did play in the opening round of 128 as she easily defeated Niagara's Hilary Hansen, 6-1, 6-1. Petrova continues play tomorrow afternoon against Amy Zhang of Rutgers. Zhang is ranked eighth in the tournament. Harijanto has her first match tomorrow against Maria Barouse of St. Bonaventure, while Popescu plays Natasha Makarova of Columbia.

Action continues tomorrow at 8:00 am.