ORLANDO – The UCF women’s tennis team had a busy week from Monday, Sept. 25 to Tuesday, Oct. 3, picking up numerous victories up and down the East Coast. Knights won crowns in both professional and collegiate tournaments, highlighted by Sophia Biolay picking up her first professional singles title at the W15 Hilton Head event and Noel Saidenova winning the Gold west draw at the Bedford Cup. Biolay is the first active Knight to win a professional singles title during her tenure at UCF.
W15 HILTON HEAD
Jantje Tillbuerger was one of two Knights players to compete in the tournament where she started off playing fourth-seeded Carolina Bohrer Martins in the main draw. Dropping just three games in the entire match, Tilbuerger came out on top with a final score of (6-2, 6-1). Moving onto the second round, Tilbuerger faced an opponent who entered the tournament from the qualifying round, Cristina Elena Tiglea. The match was hard-fought, with the women going back-and-forth between winning sets. Tilbuerger came out on top to advance to the quarterfinals (6-4, 4-6, 6-3). In the quarterfinal round, Tilbuerger played Maria Florencia Urrtia but could not find her footing in the match and was defeated (3-6, 1-6).
Biolay started her tournament in the qualifying draw as the No. 5 seed. Facing Maria Aran Teixido Garcia in her first match of the event, she took the match in two sets, finishing at (6-3, 7-5). From there, her roll didn’t stop as she won her next match in two sets against Taylor Goetz (6-3, 6-2). These two matches moved her on to the main draw where she saw even more success. Biolay faced another opponent who entered the main draw from the qualifying draw, Alexia Harmon, and played her first three-set match of the tournament with a (3-6, 6-1, 3-6) final score moving her on to the second round. The France native found her rhythm in the second round, dropping only seven games against Carolina Gomez with a score of (6-4, 6-3). In her quarterfinals matchup, Biolay found easy success against Kira Matushkina, closing out the faceoff in a (6-3, 6-4) two-set match. With the end in sight, Biolay advanced to the semifinals where she faced Argentina’s Florencia Urrutia and emerged victorious with a (6-1, 3-6. 6-4) final score. The finals of the tournament resulted in a competitive three-set matchup with Biolay dropping the first set to Wakana Sonobe but coming back to win the match and her first professional singles title with a (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) final score.
BEDFORD CUP
Saidenova and Anique Kattenberg represented the Black and Gold at the Bedford Cup, hosted by South Florida. The tournament opened up with doubles play Thursday night and both Knights teamed up to take on Cade Cricchio and Kristyna Lavickova from Florida State. The tandem went up a break and never looked back, taking the Seminoles down (6-3). Advancing to the semifinals of the east draw, the next duo from Stetson, Alanna Di Francesco and Cheri Darley, was much of the same for the UCF pairing, defeating the Hatters to move on to the finals. Kattenberg and Saidenova swiftly defeated Amy Kaplan and Isabel Oliveira of North Florida to secure the double crown.
Shifting to singles, Kattenberg found much success in the Green draw, advancing to the finals in her second tournament of the fall. She faced off against familiar foe, Kaplan, and discovered similar success to the doubles matchup, winning 6-4, 6-3 to move onto the quarterfinals. Kattenberg easily took down Ida Ferding from Florida Gulf Coast, relinquishing only one game in the 6-1, 6-0 victory. The redshirt sophomore defeated Petja Drame from Florida International 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the finals. Kattenberg wrapped up her tournament as the runner-up in the Green draw, falling to Katerina Mandelikova from Florida International 6-2, 6-1.
After dropping her first match of the weekend (6-4, 5-7, 7-10) to Isabella Colmenares from Florida Gulf Coast in the Gold east draw, Saidenova went on to win the remaining three matches of the weekend to emerge as the Gold west champion. The junior defeated both Melisa Senli of South Florida and Laura Putz of Florida State (6-2, 6-2) to move to the finals for the first time this fall season. South Florida’s Grace Schumacher put up a fight, but Saidenova emerged victorious (6-3, 4-6, 10-7) to earn the trophy.
ITA ALL-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Redshirt freshman Grace Levelston was the lone UCF representative at the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, N.C. In Levelston’s first round, she faced off against Ruxandra Schech,a grad student from UNC Charlotte, who currently holds a World Tennis Number of 13.8. In a decisive two set match, Levelston defeated Schech (6-3, 6-2). Levelston then fell to junior Mai Nirundorn from the University of Georgia (6-2, 6-3) to wrap up her time at the tournament.
W60 ROME
Olivia Lincer and Stefani Webb represented the Knights at the ITF W60 Rome event in the qualifying draw. Lincer picked up the first set of her opening match against Mallaurie Noel but was defeated in three sets by a score of (5-7, 6-1, 6-3).
Webb competed against American Tori Kinard during her first round of singles qualifying and battled till the end, coming out on top of the three-set match [7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5)]. Advancing to the second round, the sophomore went head-to-head against Lincer’s former opponent Noel. This was where her tournament run came to an end, falling (6-4, 6-4).