Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Bucknell Quad Tournament
Cioffi, Parks Qualify for Doubles Final to Highlight Second Day of Bucknell Quad
9/5/2015 11:01:00 PM | Women's Tennis
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Melissa Parks and Maria Cioffi cruised through their first two matches to advance to the championship round in the Flight B doubles bracket Saturday at the Bucknell Quad Tournament. The Bison also had four singles players and their Flight A doubles team of Lisa Jouravleva and Stephanie Pino advance to the semifinals before the second of three days of competition concluded.
Parks and Cioffi defeated Isabella Draper and Sam Barbato from Mount St. Mary's 8-1 in the quarterfinals and followed that with an 8-0 shutout over Colgate's Nicole Szczech and Stephanie Fuentes in the semifinals. They will take on Concordia's Linda Eliasson and Stefanie Canals for the title on Sunday. Cioffi teamed with Pino to defeat the Concordia duo in a championship match last season.
Jouravleva and Pino had a bye in the first round before defeating IUP's Luise von Agris and Rachel Wood 8-3 in the quarterfinals. They will play Colgate's Lauren Hyland and Jennifer Ho in the semifinals.
Bucknell had a solid first day of singles play, going 11-6 in their winner's bracket matches. Jouravleva and Cioffi are in the semifinals on opposite ends of the bracket in Flight A, while Mishi Papich and Danielle Gannon advanced to the semis in Flight B and Flight C, respectively.
Jouravleva was pushed to the limit in both of her matches, but pulled out the win in both. She recorded three-set wins over Ho and IUP's Sophie Butland to advance to the semis, where she will play Concordia's Costanza Mecchi. Cioffi had a little easier time on the other side of the bracket, posting a straight-set victory over Concordia's Demi Huang in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the first round. She will play Hyland in the semifinals.
Papich and Gannon made the most of their collegiate debuts. Papich topped Elizabeth Veronis (Mount St. Mary's) in the opening round before rolling past Loyola's Emily Hughes 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. She will play Eliasson in the semifinals. Gannon had a thrilling first match, outlasting Szczech 13-11 in the third set. She followed that with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Concordia's Antonia Conze to advance to the semis, where she will play von Agris.
The remaining semifinals matches of the singles brackets will begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Players Mentioned
