Monday, 09/14/2009

The Liberty Lady Flames tennis team opened its 2009 fall season by taking three flight championships at the JMU Invitational, Friday and Saturday.

Junior Jordan Jenkins (Sarasota, Fla.) won the Flight A singles bracket and paired with junior Hannah Fick (Hamilton, New Zealand) to take the title in Flight A doubles. Junior Nadia Solomon-Burgess (Capetown, South Africa) claimed the final Lady Flames title, taking the Flight B singles bracket.

In total, Liberty won eight of its 13 matches over the four singles brackets and went 4-1 in the two doubles brackets.

Jenkins did not lose on the weekend in either singles or doubles. The junior won all three of her singles contests in straight sets, winning the Flight A singles crown with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Katherine Bulling of James Madison. Jenkins dropped only five games in three singles matches in her first time on the courts this year.

Solomon-Burgess followed her teammate’s lead, winning the Flight B singles title. After defeating Radford’s Ivana Tomaic in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, the Liberty junior took a 6-1, 6-1 decision from Zasofia Jakab of Longwood for the bracket’s crown.

In doubles, Jenkins and Fick rolled through the Flight A bracket, dropping just six points in their three matches. In the final, the Lady Flames pair downed Longwood’s Laura Simon and Marta Pinoyol Davi, 8-3.

The Liberty women’s tennis squad will continue its fall schedule, Oct. 2-4, at the Old Dominion Tournament in Norfolk, Va. The tournament gets underway on Oct. 2 at 9 a.m.