New York, N.Y. – The Fordham University women's tennis team opened its 2019-2020 season at the Columbia Invitational where both Arina Taluyenko and Valeria Deminova placed third in their singes flights.
 
Arina Taluyenko opened play in the Brooklyn Draw with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Hofstra's Alejandra Ruffini before falling to Akanksha Bhan from Columbia, 6-0, 7-6(4). In the third place match, Taluyenko defeated NJIT's Joleta Budiman, 6-2, 7-5.
 
Deminova started play in the Manhattan Draw with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Jasmine King of Hofstra before falling to Harvard's Mihaela Marculescu, 6-3, 7-6(4). In the third place game, Deminova battled back after dropping the first set to Oceane Garibal of St. John's, 7-6, to win the second, 7-5, and the tiebreaker, 10-4.
 
In the Bronx Draw, Avery Aude defeated Victoria Erechtchenko of LIU, 6-1, 7-5, and then lost to Harvard's Sophia Ho, 6-1, 7-5. She advanced to the third place game that was not played.
 
In the Queens Draw, Weronika Pociej lost her opening match to Harvard's Rachel Eason, 6-0, 6-4, but rallied to win her second against Mouna Bouzgarrou, dropping the first set, 6-4, but coming back to win the second, 6-3, and the tiebreaker, 11-9. She then defeated Colgate's Jordan Williams in the consolation final, 6-2, 6-3.
 
In the Staten Island Draw, Genevieve Quenville fell to NJIT's Shamika Dhar, dropping the first set, 6-3, before winning the second by the same score. But Dhar took the tiebreaker, 12-10. In her second match, Quenville again went to a tiebreaker but came out on top this time against Columbia's Melissa Sakar, winning 7-6(4), 2-6, 11-9. Sher then fell to Camila Ordonez of St. John's in the consolation final, 6-3, 6-2.
 
In the Westchester Draw, Rachelle Yang won the consolation final. She opened play with a 6-3, 6-4 loss to LIU's Ekaterine Jorjoliani but then defeated Rebecca Wolf from Colgate in a tiebreaker, 5-7, 7-6(3), 11-9, and then took down Briana Omar from NJIT in yet another tiebreaker in the consolation final, 3-6, 7-5, 11-9.

Also in the Westchester Draw, Nicole Li dropped her first match to Columbia's Michelle Xu, 61, 6-1, and then fell in her next match to Briana Omar from NJIT, taking the first set 7-5, but losing the second, 6-4, and the tiebreaker, 10-7.
 
Maia Balce advanced to the championship of the Nassau Draw, opening with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Katerina Atallah from Colgate and then defeating Columbia's Yekaterina Alferova, before falling to Ari Pollack from Columbia, 6-4, 7-6(3), in the championship.

Also in the Nassau Draw, Nicole Massa fell to Columbia's Ali Pollack, 6-0, 6-2, and then lost to Ronia Dolabany from Hofstra, 7-6, 6-2.
 
In doubles play, Aude and Deminova (A Doubles), Taluyenko and Pociej (B Doubles) and Quenville, Nicole Li (C Doubles), and Balce and Yang (D Doubles) all went 1-1.

Also Massa played in D Doubles with Jenelle Downer from St. Johns, losing to Julia Haynes and Michelle Xu from Columbia, 6-0, and Katarina Jordjoliani and Phoebe Watton from LIU, 6-1.
 
The Rams return to action on Friday, September 20 as they begin play at the Cissie Leary Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania.