The St. Bonaventure women’s tennis team opened up its 2019-20 season this past weekend in Annapolis, Maryland for the Navy Invitational.
The Bonnies returned all six players from last year’s 8-15 team, including their two 13-game winners, sophomores Penelope Abreu and Emily Stanley. They also brought back Kahlei Reisinger, the lone senior for the Bonnies this year, who has accounted for 20 doubles victories over her last two seasons.
Despite the bevy of returning talent, it was the two fresh faces that head coach Michael Bates added to this year’s squad that stole the show in Annapolis.
Freshman Amelia Haley and Amara Young were the only two Bonnies to see action on Sunday, the final day of the invitational.
Haley, a four-year varsity letter winner with Mars Area High School in Mars, Pennsylvania, competed in the “B” Courage Singles Flight. After taking down her first two opponents in straight sets, Haley squared off with Bucknell University senior Paige Leavy in the semifinals on Saturday. After dropping the first set 6-7 to Leavy, Haley bounced back to take the match with a 7-5 win in the second set, and a 10-7 win in the third set.
It was on Sunday that she met up with another Bucknell Bison in the championship round, freshman Dax Siedlen, who was able to avenge her teammate’s loss from Saturday, and take down Haley in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4.
Although she came up short in the championship match, head coach Michael Bates was impressed with what he saw out of his first-year player. “Being a freshman, it’s a whole new experience, and you know you’re not sure what to expect. She competes very hard,” said Bates. “There’s things we’ve figured out from this weekend that she needs to work on…that’s the whole idea of playing these tournaments, just try to figure out what we need to work on and continue working on that.”
Fellow freshman Amara Young took a different path towards reaching Sunday afternoon play. Young, an Indianapolis, Indiana native, dropped her opening match on Friday in the “C” Commitment Singles Flight. She was placed in the consolation bracket, and once she hit the court Saturday in the quarterfinals, Young took off. In the one-set, first-to-eight-games matches that took place in the consolation bracket, Young won her quarterfinal and semifinal matches 8-3, 8-7, respectively. Sunday’s championship match was a throwback to the Western New York Little Three conference, as Young was pitted against junior Megan Gamble of rival Niagara University. Young blew through Gamble, taking the “C” Commitment Singles Flight Consolation Title by a final of 8-3.
According to Bates, this is just the beginning of what Bonnie fans can expect from the freshman phenom.
“She is very talented…I expect high things from her. She can really get, you know, a lot better…she’s got all the strokes, and you know once again it’s just kind of refining a little bit and knowing what we’re asking for,” said Bates.
Other highlights from the weekend included a trip to the singles semifinals for junior Buse Gunay and sophomore Paula Velilla. Gunay, who competed in the “D” Loyalty Singles Flight, and Velilla, who was placed in the “E” Perseverance Singles Flight, both lost to the eventual champion of their respective flights. Gunay lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, to Fairleigh Dickinson University sophomore Smiriti Singh, while Velilla fell to a hometown Navy Midshipmen, Danika Kahatapitiya, 6-2, 6-1.
The overall results of the invitational were some of the best Bates has seen from a Bonnies’ squad in tournament play.
“I thought it was a good weekend for us. I think we competed really well,” said Bates.
The Bonnies will return to action Sep. 27-29 when they head to West Point, New York. for the West Point Invitational.
Tommy Valentine, Contributing Writer
valenttr19@bonaventure.edu
