Sept. 21, 2012

West Point, N.Y. - The Fordham University women's tennis squad opened play at the 2012 Army Invitational today with Angelika Dabu advancing to the second singles semifinals and Anika Novacek to the quarterfinals in fourth singles and the doubles team of Sarah Ali and Bella Genkina moving to the semifinals of the A doubles.

Dabu opened play at second singles with a bye and then defeated UMass' Jessica Podlofsky, taking the first set, 6-4, before dropping the second, 7-5, but coming back to win the tiebreaker, 12-10. She will face UConn's Lucy Nutting in the semifinals on Saturday.

Novacek started her day with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Army's Haley O'Conner, to advance to Saturday's quarterfinals in fourth singles.

In A doubles, the team of Ali and Genkina opened the tournament with an 8-3 win over Lehigh's Jenai Bilmoria and Abigail Farrell in the round of 16 and then advanced to the semifinals with an 8-5 victory over Massachusetts' Arielle Griffin and Jessica Podlofsky. They will now face Quinnipiac's Michele Dassa and Jackie Raynor in the semifinals on Saturday.

Ali is also playing the second singles but her round of 16 match with Army's Sma Stosljevic was not played and will be played on Saturday.

In first singles, Fordham' Genkina and Amy Simidian both lost their first matches with Genkina falling to Stony Brook's Jackie Altan Sarnai, 9-7, 6-2, and Simidian dropping a 6-4, 6-0 decision to Stony Brook's Polina Movchan.

In third singles, Hannah Fritzinger fell to Army's Margaret Iliev, 6-3, 6-1, in the round of 16 while Julie Leong was upended by Stony Brook's Cassandra Dix, 6-3, 6-4, in the same round.

In B doubles play, the team of Dabu and Leong fell to Nicole Chis and Manu Leme from FDU, 8-4.

Play will continue in the Army Invitational on Saturday.