Miami Women Perfect in Singles Competition
CARY, N.C. – MiamiHurricanes Melissa Bolivar, Lina Lileikite and Kelsey Laurente each won theiropening round matches in three separate singles brackets at Duke’sseason-opening Fab-Four Invitational on Friday.
“It’s exciting to be backon the road with a phenomenal group of women that are eager to show what Miamitennis is all about,” assistant coach Alex Santos said.
Friday’s action at the CaryTennis Center began with doubles matches in the morning. After a loss in thesemifinal round of the Blue bracket, both Bolivar and Lileikite responded withsingles wins in the Black and White brackets, respectively.
“In singles, both workedreally hard to improve their games and finish the day on a positive note,”Santos added.
Bolivar was leading in thethird set, 5-4, over Texas A&M’s Wen Sun when the latter retired.
Lileikite was steady in hermatch, proving to be too much for North Carolina’s Ashley Dai (6-2, 6-4)
In the morning session, the twovets teamed up to defeat the Texas duo of Begley and Gajic, 8-1. However, NorthCarolina’s pair of Slater and Suarez-Malaguti forced the Miami tandem intoSaturday’s third-place match against Texas A&M’s Stancu andSanchez-Quintanar, 8-1.
“It’s the start of a newseason and after a strong opening-round match in doubles, I felt that Lina andMeli had a hard time adapting in a more competitive environment in their secondmatch,” Santos said. “At this point in time, it’s not as much aboutthe results, but the overall process.”
Bolivar and Lileikite will eachplay at 10 a.m. in their respective brackets. Bolivar will face Maya Jansen ofAlabama while Lileikite will battle Yale’s Madeleine Hamilton.
“It was also a special dayfor our program because it was the first college tournament for Kelsey wearingthe orange and green,” Santos said. “She competed and fit inperfectly with what we are trying to do.”
Laurente overpowered Alabama’sNatalia Maynetto in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. The Miramar, Fla., native willface Duke’s 44th-ranked Mary Clayton Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Bluebracket quarterfinals.
“We will rest tonight andlook ahead to another day full of tennis on Saturday,” Santos concluded.
