Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Tennis to Host Towson Thursday, Face St. Joe's, Colgate on the Road
4/1/2013 8:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 1, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell women's tennis will return to Patriot League play when it travels to Colgate for a 10 a.m. match on Saturday. Before the Bison can get to Hamilton, N.Y., however, they'll have to make their way through Saint Joseph's and Towson in a couple of midweek matches. Bucknell opens its weekly schedule against the Hawks in Philadelphia at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Play continues at home at the Varsity Tennis Courts on Thursday against Towson, also at 3 p.m.
Bucknell (5-8, 0-1 PL) split its non-conference matches against Mount St. Mary's and Villanova last week and struggled to find consistency in its lineup. Stephanie Pino was the only Bison to win both singles matches, defeating her opponent from The Mount 6-0, 6-4 at the sixth spot in the lineup and her foe from Villanova 4-6, 3-3, retired the following timeout at No. 5.
Like her team, Elena Vidrascu went 1-1. Her win over Mikelle Mancini on Thursday made her 4-0 this year vs. Villanova, however. It was also her second victory over Mancini, whom she defeated in straight sets in the fall at the Bucknell Invitational.
While Vidrascu was making noise at the top of the lineup, Sam Madnick was making her own impact farther down the line. The freshman won her singles match against Villanova, 6-4, 6-7, 11-9 at the No. 6 spot in the lineup. With that win, she claimed the first set of back-to-back duals wins of her career and her first career win in a super tie break. Her singles winning streak stands at three matches, including her final outing at the Bloomsburg Fall Classic in September. Madnick's week also included an 8-3 win at doubles with Jen Bush against Mount St. Mary's.
The doubles lineup for Bucknell continues to fluctuate. The Bison have used 15 combos this spring. Nine of those have records of .500 or better. Ten of those 15 tandems have played together only once, and only four of those played together at some point during the fall.
Bucknell will look to get a better handle on its consistency when it travels to Saint Joseph's on Tuesday. The Hawks (7-8) have seen some major swings of their own this year. After losing eight of their first nine dual matches, they have since run off wins in their last six. The last two victories came opposite Lehigh (7-0) and St. Bonaventure (6-1).
Bucknell has a 7-0 lead in the all-time series with St. Joe's, but the last time they met in a dual was in 2003. That match went to the Bison in a sweep. The two squads are somewhat familiar with each other, however, as they faced each other in six matches at the Saint Joseph's Invitational earlier this year. Bucknell was 1-3 in singles and 1-1 in doubles in those bouts. Bush claimed the singles victory, a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Anne Marie Devlin. Maria Cioffi and Vidrascu were 8-2 winners over Aurora Davis and Lauren Roy in doubles.
The Bison also have a convincing lead in the series with Towson at 13-3. The Tigers (8-5) have had the last laugh, however, winning 5-2 a year ago. Bucknell's last win against Towson came in 2009 by a score of 7-0. The closes matchup on that afternoon was a 6-3, 6-2 win for Lauren Rottkamp.
Towson enters the week having won three of its last five matches and will face Delaware on Wednesday. Also on the Tigers' schedule earlier this year were Patriot League opponents Lafayette and Lehigh. Towson won those matches, 4-0 and 6-1, respectively.
Colgate will play host to Bucknell on Saturday. The Raiders enter the week at 9-4 overall and 1-2 in the Patriot League. The lone conference victory came against Lafayette, 7-0. The two losses were also sweeps at the hands of Navy and Army. Colgate is coming off a 2011-12 campaign in which it went 7-13 overall and 2-3 in conference action. Alex Petrini was the team's lone All-League selection, earning a nod to the second team.
Bucknell trails Colgate 20-15 in the all-time series, which began in 1977. The Bison fell 4-3 last year during the regular season with all three points coming in singles play. Dumitrita Iepuras was the victor in three sets at the No. 1 spot in the lineup, while Vidrascu won in straight sets at No. 3 and Christie Schneider defeated Meredith Rock 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 at No. 5. Bucknell's last win against the Raiders came in 2011 by a score of 6-1.
Saturday won't be the first time Bucknell and Colgate have seen each other this year. The Raiders came to the Bucknell Invitational in September and the teams essentially played to a draw in tournament action. Bush, Cioffi and Pino each earned singles wins, but Madnick, Alyssa McAndrew and Claudia Silvers dropped their matches. The Bison and Raiders also went 1-1 in doubles thanks to an 8-1 decision for Bush and Pino over Jennifer Ho and Petrini.
The match with Colgate will be the first of four straight for the Bison against the Patriot League. After Saturday, the Bison will host Army (April 13) and Lafayette (April 14) before heading to Lehigh (April 16) to put the finishing touches on their conference regular season.
