Saturday, 09/22/2012

PHILADELPHIA - The Columbia women's tennis team completed a successful first day at the Cissie Leary Invitational hosted by Penn Friday.

In singles Flight A, the Lions advanced four players onto Saturday's round of 16. Crystal Leung and Kanika Vaidya will go up against each other Saturday after each received a bye in the round of 64 and then defeated their first opponent in the round of 32. Leung downed Penn State's Chelsea Litting, 6-4, 6-0, while Vaidya used two equal sets of 6-3 tennis to top Anna Abadias from Richmond.

Bianca Sanon and Tiana Takenaga each also reached the round of 16. Sanon used straight sets to get by Nataliva Maumova from Delaware, while Takenaga was forced to a third set, but came out ahead of Yana Mavrina from Temple, 6-2, 2-6, 10-7.

In singles Flight B, Amy Li also needed three sets, but will by playing in the round of 16 Saturday after beating Penn's Srinidhi Raghavan.

Vaidya also saw success on the doubles court with teammate Katarina Kovacevic. The Columbia duo eased by Alex Ion and Emma Whitfield from Penn by a score of 8-2 to reach the round of 16.

In the bottom half of the doubles bracket, two Columbia pairs will be in action Saturday. Sanon and Takenaga defeated Drexel's Erin Bowsher and Nicole Pivonka 8-2 to advance, while Leung and Li edged out Jordan Batey and Alicia Doms from Temple, 8-6.

Action continues Saturday with the quarter and semifinal rounds, leading up to Sunday's finals.