Women's Tennis Ends Season With Program-Best HVIAC Tournament Runner Up Honors

FLUSHING, N.Y.—The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's tennis team produced finalists in eight of nine flights and took home a program-best runner-up finish at the 2014 Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Championships held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

St. Joseph's collected a team-best 17 points with all seven Lady Bears to compete winning at least one match on the afternoon, before being eliminated by the eventual flight champion of Pratt, who won the team title for the fourth straight year sweeping all six singles and three doubles flights.

Leading the Lady Bears was reigning three-time HVIAC Player of the Week Tathiana Pierre (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Ford) who fell to the No. 1 singles champion and HVIAC Player of the Year Agata Jakubowska of Pratt. Her 8-5 semifinal victory over Berkeley's Rhean Kaula pushed her to seven singles wins on the season, matching a team record.

Pierre teamed up with senior Victoria LoBosco (Glendale, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) at No. 1 doubles and blanked Nancy Varughese and Samantha Gomez of the College of New Rochelle in the semifinals. In ceremonies following the tournament, both Pierre and LoBosco were named to the All-Conference Team—LoBosco's second time receiving the honor.

Samantha Rossi (Bayside, N.Y./Mary Louis) advanced to her first career flight final at No. 2 singles defeating Nancy Varughese, 8-2, in the semifinals.

Mary Edward (Glendale, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) also had a strong showing at No. 4 singles downing Marie Evje of Berkeley, 8-3. Madeline Moravek (Whitestone, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) boosted her record to 5-0 in conference singles play with a pair of victories against Vaughn and New Rochelle and now shares the program record for singles wins in a season with Pierre, both having seven. Edward and Moravek combined for an 8-2 triumph over Vaughn in the No. 2 doubles semifinals.

Deirdre Lavelle (Brooklyn, N.Y./Fontbonne Hall) collected four wins on the day posting a pair of wins in the No. 6 singles tournament before teaming up with Princess Baptiste (Atlanta, Ga./Benjamin Banneker) to collect two more wins at No. 3 doubles.

Under second-year head coach TC Huen, the Lady Bears have produced their two best tournament finishes in program history, finishing in third place last year and collecting their first runner-up trophy this season.