Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Women's Tennis to Wrap Up Fall Home Schedule this Weekend with Bucknell Invite
9/20/2012 8:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 20, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bison women's tennis will host its final set of matches until February this weekend when it welcomes Bloomsburg, Colgate, Mount St. Mary's and Villanova to the Varsity Tennis Courts for the Bucknell Invitational. Highlighting the field will be Bucknell's Maria Cioffi (Williamsport, Pa./South Williamsport), who is coming off a pair of championship wins in just her second intercollegiate event. Cioffi and the rest of the field will begin competition on Friday with play running through Sunday.
Cioffi claimed the Flight A titles in both singles and doubles at the Mount St. Mary's Invitational last weekend. The freshman has now advanced to the championship match in singles and doubles in each of her first two tournaments. She even improved over common opponents from one event to the next. After falling to Meghan Hahn of Loyola (Md.) 6-2, 6-2 in the finals at the Bucknell Quad, Cioffi worked her way to a win over the Greyhound in the semis at Mount St. Mary's. Cioffi knocked Hahn out 6-2, 3-6, 10-6 to advance to the championship round against teammate Elena Vidrascu (Rochester, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland). Cioffi had a similar result in doubles where she lost to Hahn and Olivia Ott in the doubles final at her first home tournament then defeated the Loyola duo in the semifinal at Mount St. Mary's.
Vidrascu, who partnered with Cioffi to win doubles in Emmitsburg, Md., is 4-2 in singles and 5-1 in doubles this season. Her three total losses have come at the hands of none other than Cioffi. The two met in last weekend's singles final where Cioffi improved to 2-0 on the year over her elder teammate. Vidrascu's lone doubles loss came against Cioffi and Stephanie Pino (Berwyn, Pa./The Episcopal Academy) at the Bucknell Quad.
Although Vidrascu's losses have all come against her fellow Bison, the junior co-captain has still been able to separate herself from her teammates in the record books. Vidrascu is currently 22nd in doubles (31-32) and combined (62-61) wins. She is just one victory shy of cracking the top 25 in singles, entering the weekend with a career record of 32-19.
The Cioffi vs. Vidrascu matchup in last weekend's Flight A final was not the first time this fall that two Bison have squared off for a title. Falling to Cioffi and Vidrascu in the doubles final at Mount St. Mary's was Lydia Colvin (Cleveland, Ohio/Orange) and Alyssa McAndrew (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe). Through the first two tournaments this season, 10 Bison individuals or doubles teams have advanced to a championship match. Six Bison made it through to the ultimate bout in four different draws at Mount St. Mary's. The Orange and Blue were also represented in every flight final of the Bucknell Quad, although they were unable to come away with a win in any of those matches.
Bucknell has become very familiar with Loyola, a future Patriot League foe, in the first two tournaments of the fall as both teams appeared at the Bucknell Quad and the Mount St. Mary's Invite. The teams have been very evenly matched, tying at 11-11 in head-to-head singles matches. The Bison have a slight 6-5 edge in doubles.
Bucknell is about to get even more familiar with The Mount this weekend. The Bison went 7-10 in singles and 4-3 in doubles against Mount St. Mary's last week in Maryland, but The Mount got the better of them in both finals matches. Bucknell will also have a bit of work to do this weekend against its other opponents to make up ground from some 2011 matches. The Bison lost 4-3 to both Colgate and Villanova when the teams met in duals last spring. Bucknell was a 6-3 winner in its dual with Bloomsburg a year ago.
Bucknell's fall schedule is quickly coming to a close. The Bison will hit the road for its final two tournaments, going to Philadelphia, Pa., for the Saint Joseph's Invitational Sept. 28-30 and the Bethlehem, Pa., for the Lehigh Invitational Oct. 12-14.
