ASA Has Strong Women’s Tennis Fall Season

October 19, 2010

Brooklyn, NY--- The ASA has put together an impressive showing for their fall season thus far. The team looks to improve on their spring season #7 ranking, and with the results of the fall, there is a lot of promise.

The Lady Avengers opened up the fall season by hosting the ITA Regional Tournament at the US Tennis, the home of the US Open, October 2-3. It is the first tournament that any ASA athletic program has ever hosted. The entire team had a strong performance with teammates, Tetiana Kovalska (Simperepol, Ukraine/N1 Secondary School)[Pictured] and Lyudmyla Livoska (Toronto, Canada/Bayview Glen), advancing to the championship singles match to play each other. Kovalska would win in straight sets. Kovalska and Livoska would pair up as a doubles team that would go on to beat Onondaga CC in the tournament’s finals. The two wins for ASA would grant them an invite to the ITA Small College Nationals.

The weekend after the Lady Avengers won the ITA Regionals, they would compete in the USTA College Invitational October 9-11. The team would be in a pool with four-year schools in the tournament including notables such as Harvard, Yale, Brown, St. John’s, and Rutgers. ASA would become the first ever Junior College to ever compete in the event. Despite playing through a nagging injury, sophomore Tetiana Kovalska would put up a good fight against the #1 seed in the tournament, Brown’s Bianca Aboubakare, losing 6-4, 7-5. Lyudmyla Livoska would win her first match in the “B” Flight of the tournament. The same doubles of Kovalska and Livoska would team up again and win their first set 8-6 against the University of Pennsylvania but would not be able to continue due to Kovalska’s reoccurring injury. The Lady would finish the tournament playing schools such as Cornell, Dartmouth, and St. John’s.

This past weekend, Tetiana Kovalska and Lyudmyla Livoska would travel to Mobile, AL for the ITA Small College Nationals. Kovalska would go into the tournament as the #3 seed singles player. She would fall to State College of Florida’s Palacios in the first round in three tough sets. However, Kovalska would go on to win her remaining two matches to give her a #5 finish in the tournament and possibly a #5 national ranking going into the Spring 2011 season. Kovalska would carry her success in the singles event over to the doubles event with teammate, Lyudmyla Livoska. The pair would win their first two matches against Hillsborough (FL) and Georgia Perimeter, setting up a finals match against national power, Tyler (TX). The pair would put up a fight in the first set, but Tyler’s experience would win out in the end. The Second Place finish is a huge improvement from last year’s Sixth Place finish at the event.