The Fordham University women's tennis squad competed at the USTA Women's College Invitational from October 11-13 at the U.S. National Tennis Center in Queens where Elliesa Ball advanced to the semifinals of the A Singles competition.
 
Ball opened her weekend with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 win over Pittsburgh's Audrey Ann Blakely in the round of 16 and moved on to the quarterfinals where she defeated Crystal Leung from Columbia, dropping the first set., 6-3, before winning the second, 7-5, and the tiebreaker, 10-3.
 
In the semifinals, Ball was pitted against Princeton's Sivan Krems and Krems upended Ball in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.
 
Sarah Ali competed in the B singles, falling to Delaware's Carmen Lai in the round of 16, 7-6 (4), 6-2, before defeating Maria Bernardez of Providence in the backdraw, 3-6, 6-3, 10-6. She then fell to FDU's Shreya Pasricha in the backdraw, 7-5, 6-0.
 
In C singles competition, Angelika Dabu lost to Charleston Southern's Mikola Cooper in the round of 16, 6-2, 6-4. In the backdraw, she fell to Louise Lopez of Hofstra, 6-1, 6-4, before defeating Rocio Portela of Seton Hall, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
 
In D singles, Anika Novacek fell to Alexandra Walters from Charleston Southern in the round of 16, 6-0, 6-2 and then to Binghamton's Alexis Tashiro in the backdraw, 6-2, 6-3.
 
Destiny Grunin competed in the E singles for the Rams, dropping a 7-6(6), 6-0 decision to Rutgers' Lindsay Balsamo in the round of 16 and then defeating Lucy Nutting of Connecticut, 6-4, 6-2 in the backdraw. She closed out play with a 6-2, 1-6, 10-8 loss to Providence's Carolina Zanotta.
 
In F singles, Julie Leong defeated NJIT's Megan Guidry in the round of 16, 6-3, 6-1, but then fell to Hannah Morrill of Harvard, 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.
 
Bella Genkina represented Fordham in the G singles, falling to Angelica Sidorenko of Charleston Southern in the round of 16, 3-6, 6-1, 10-7, but coming back to take a backdraw match from FDU's Manu Leme, 6-0, 6-1. She then lost to UTA's Ekaterina Tugariwova, 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.
 
In doubles play, Ali and Ball teamed up at A doubles, winning their first round match against FDU's Masha Krachok and Ksenija Tihomirova, 8-4, before falling  in the quarterfinals to Rocio Portela and Chloe Sher from Seton Hall, 8-6. In the backdraw they lost to Pittsburgh's Jocelyn Lu and Taylor Washington, 8-6.
 
In B doubles, Dabu and Novacek fell to Providence's Maria Bernardez and Hannah Zangari, 8-3, in the round of 16 before defeating Shea Flanagan and Lucy Nutting of Connecticut, 8-5, in the backdraw. The Ra duo then lost to Lindsay Balsamo and Vanessa Petrini from Rutgers, 8-2.
 
Genkina and Leong competed in the C doubles for Fordham, dropping their round of 16 match to Nicolia Luecke and Marketa Placha of Charleston Southern, 8-1, and their first backdraw match, 8-4, to St. John's Khrystyna Pavlyuk and Puck Vlaskamp. Genkina and Leong rebounded to defeat Bryant's Briana Leonard and Jenna LaBarre, 9-8 (4), in their final doubles match.
 
In D doubles, Grunin teamed with Delaware's Nataliya Naumova and defeated FDU's Manu Lemeand and Shreya Pasricha in the round of 16, 8-3, and Columbia's Amy Li and Nada Zaher in the quarterfinals, 8-3. The duo advanced to the finals with an 8-4 win over Connecticut's Jenise Vargas and Marie Gargiulo and then won the flight with an 8-5 win over Kimmy Borza and Katherine Castro of Pittsburgh, 8-5.
 
The Rams will close out the fall season with an appearance at the ITA Regionals to be held from October 17-23 at Harvard University.