Box Score

Brooklyn, NY --- The Brooklyn College Women's Tennis team kicked off the defense of its 2011 City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) regular season championship by defeating the Bloodhounds of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 8-1, this afternoon at the Roosevelt Courts on the BC campus.

With the win, Brooklyn improves to 2-0 overall on the season and 1-0 in the CUNYAC; while John Jay falls to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

“Obviously, it was very important for us to win our fist CUNYAC match,” said head coach Ahmad Odetalla. “First doubles gave us a little scare in the beginning, but we found a way to persevere the rest of the way.”

The day began with doubles play, as the Bulldogs cruised through the #2 and #3 doubles matches, winning both with identical scores of 8-2, to take an early 2-0 lead.

The John Jay duo of Armine Kurkjian and Natalie Cervantes jumped out to an early 3-0 lead at #1 doubles and would later lead by a margin of 5-2. However, the tandem of sophomore Yuliya Orkis and junior Gianna Gelosi gutted it out to battle back to win a hard-fought match, 8-6 to give the Bulldogs a clean sweep in doubles.

BC use its momentum from doubles into singles play, as Brooklyn would take five of the six matches to take the eventual 8-1 win.

Orkis, the reigning CUNYAC Player of the Week, continued her solid play on the young season defeating Kurkjian 6-0, 6-0 at #1 singles.

Juniors Maria Sanz (6-4, 6-2 - #2 singles), Olayinka Sarayi (6-2, 6-4 - #5 singles) and Gelosi (6-1, 6-0 - #6 singles) were also victorious in their respective singles matches.

The match of the day came at #3 singles between Brooklyn's junior Norma Lynn Chabbott and John Jay's Lauren Mallon. Chabbott took the opening set 6-1, while Mallon returned the favor winning the second set 6-1 to force a third set tiebreaker. Chabbott would eventually out-duel Mallon in the third set, 10-2, to take the match.

Brooklyn will return to the Roosevelt Courts tomorrow, Saturday, September 22nd, as the Bulldogs will continue with CUNYAC play, as BC will welcome the Beavers of the City College of New York. The match is slated for a 12:00 pm start time.