Tennis strong in universities’ invitational to start season

Sophia Belletti
Contributing Writer

The men’s and women’s tennis teams each hosted their own invitationals last week, showing early dominance against the competition.

So far, VCU’s men’s tennis team is on the right track to a winning record and fans have a lot to look forward to as they start their season 4-1, practically sweeping all their opponents at home.

The Rams kicked off their season Jan. 16 by hosting the VCU 4-1 Invitational. The Rams put up an impressive battle the first day of the tournament, defeating Norfolk State University 4-1 and Georgetown University 5-0. Junior Michal Voscek and sophomore Catalin Fifea both picked up wins in both matches to keep the Rams undefeated at the end of the day.

“I’m happy that our guys came out and played well for the first time out,” head coach Paul Kostin said. “Our second match allowed us to lock in and I thought we played much better than we did in the morning. With that being said, I still think we have a lot we can improve.”

The Rams had one day’s rest to prepare for James Madison University and University of Delaware, whom they played on Sunday.

Again, Fifea would assist the Rams in sweeping their opponents 5-0 when he won both his matches. The Rams left the tournament undefeated, losing only one point over the course of the weekend.

On the women’s side, the women’s tennis team would respond with a clean slate of victories in the opening day of their VCU Invitational. On Friday, Jan. 24, Kostin’s team defeated Georgetown in the opening match and Campbell University hours later. Senior Salome Kvitashvili and junior Olga Barscheuskaya posted two single victories in both matchups against Georgetown and Campbell. Both matchplay resulted in 5-0 wins for the Rams.

The women’s tennis team responded after suffering an opening season loss to the No. 6 University of Virginia on the road.

With a 2-1 season record, the Rams would compete over the remainder of the weekend but the tournament’s result were not final as of press time. The Ram would have played another doubleheader on Saturday, Jan. 24 against Temple University and Norfolk State University. On the final day of competition, VCU squared off against Morgan State University.

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