October 16, 2008

ELON, N.C. - The Longwood University women's tennis team competed in the Elon Invitational October 10-11, with freshman Jackie Esquerra/Sauk City, Wis. (Prairie du Sac High) having a tremendous outing in singles, finishing 2-1. The Lancers' also received a 2-1 record from Zsofia Jakab/Minusio, Switzerland (Lices Cantonale Locarns) and Laura Simon/Manresa, Spain (IES Lluis de Peguera) in doubles. Longwood returns to the court on October 31, participating in the Virginia Tech Invitational.
   
Esquerra began the invite with a 3-6, 6-3 [10-1] win over Tanya Ahuja on Friday, before slipping against Cinthya Lazaro on Saturday morning (1-6, 4-6). Esquerra remained composed and bounced back later in the day with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Melissa Wolf.
   
Jakab finished the invite 1-2, dropping her first game on Friday (3-6,  4-6), before taking down Emilia Milovanovic 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday morning. Jakab battled tough in her final game of the invite, but was unable to pull out a win, falling 5-7, 6-7 [2].
   
The Lancers faced a ton of tough competition, which challenged several members of the team. Overall seven members of the team finished the invite with 0-3 records in singles.
   
In doubles, Jakab and Simon powered their way through the invite, despite dropping their first match to Surviladze/Garcia (6-8). The duo bounced back taking their next two matches, starting with Movo/Milovanovic (8-6) and following that up with a 9-8 win over Kensrue/Kloppers.
   
Esquerra was unable to carry over her winning ways from singles, as her and teammate Ashley Melson/Virginia Beach (Kellam) dropped all three of their matches. The duo battled tough in their first game, slipping 5-8 to Bensimon/Saenz, before dropping another close game on Saturday morning (5-8). The pair dropped their final game 5-8 on Saturday afternoon.
   
Nasim Moadab/Colonial Heights (Colonial Heights) and Suzanne Edwards/Newport News (Hampton Roads Academy) dropped all three of their doubles matches, losing 4-8 to Nikolova/Armitano on Friday. The pair then fell 3-8 on Saturday morning, before slipping 1-8 later in the day.
   
Sarah Stafford/Midlothian (James River) and Sydney Emerson/Mechanicsville (Atlee) had a rough invitational dropping all three of their doubles matches, falling 0-8 on Friday. The pair kept things close on Saturday morning, falling 5-8, before losing 0-8 later in the day.