Villanova women's tennis went unbeaten in doubles and collected a wave of singles wins at its fall season-opening invitational on Sept. 18-19.
The Wildcats swept all 10 doubles matches over two days at the Villanova and Delaware Invitational, held across three Philadelphia-area campuses. Sunday, Sept. 20, the scheduled final day, was canceled due to weather.
Nine East Coast programs competed in individual matchups rather than team formats. Delaware, St. Joseph's, Temple, NJIT, Johns Hopkins, Syracuse, VCU and Cornell joined Villanova in the field, according to Villanova athletics.
Junior Olivia Corcoran opened Friday's singles play by beating Syracuse's Olivia Cela in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6. Sophomore Alina Korneva followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Temple's Aditi Vaidya. Six other Wildcats also won singles matches against Temple and Syracuse opponents, including Lauren Monti's three-set victory over Syracuse's Haram Kim, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0, and Maddie Hills' three-setter against Temple's Sofia Morin, 7-6, 4-6, 1-0.
All five Villanova doubles pairings won on Friday. Bella De Luise and Miriam Gondorova topped Syracuse's Cela and Kim, 6-2. Anne Moody and Corcoran beat Temple's Yasmin Costa and Martyna Mackiewicez, 7-5.
Saturday brought a pair of three-set comebacks.
De Luise, a junior, rallied past Johns Hopkins' Jasmine Nguyen, 6-1, 4-6, 1-0, for her first singles win of the weekend. Junior Olivia Kutlova matched her with a 6-0, 0-6, 1-0 comeback against Johns Hopkins' Jacie Cueng.
Graduate student Anne Moody added a 6-3, 6-4 win over Johns Hopkins' Sophia Kim. Korneva picked up her second singles win of the weekend, topping Johns Hopkins' Sahana Sanjeev, 6-4, 6-3. Corcoran also won again, beating Cornell's Tanika Saravanan, 7-5, 6-4.
The Wildcats swept all five doubles matches on Saturday as well. Korneva and Riley Cicero closed the doubles slate with a 6-1 win over Johns Hopkins' Cueng and Aubrey Zhou.
Villanova heads to the Navy Invitational in Annapolis, Md., beginning Friday, Sept. 25, and running through Sept. 27.
