Light Blue hits the road for Cissie Leary Invitational

The women’s tennis team is on the road again. This time, the Lions are on their way to the annual Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia. At the invitational, the Light Blue will face Penn yet again, as well as three Ivy rivals not yet seen this season: Cornell, Dartmouth, and Princeton.

Last season at the Cissie Leary, the Lions had an impressive showing, as current sophomore Nicole Bartnik made her collegiate debut by advancing to the final match before falling to the No. 1 seed, Eastern Tennessee’s Yevgeniya Stupak.

This year, the team expects to see similar success stories from its rookies. In the Columbia Invitational last weekend, three freshmen—Bianca Sanon, Ioana Alecsiu, and Tiana Takenaga—wasted no time proving themselves to the team. In her first collegiate tournament, Sanon boasted the team’s best result in singles Flight “A.” Delivering a performance reminiscent of Bartnik’s in the Cissie Leary last year, Sanon powered through her matches to advance to the semifinals, where she lost to the eventual champion, Monica Chow of Princeton, 6-2, 6-3.

Expectations are high for Alecsiu and Takenaga as well. After losing all but one of their matches last weekend, the two freshmen will play again as partners in the hope of mirroring their recent success.

The annual Cissie Leary Invitational will be held Sept. 24-26 in Philadelphia.