Women's Tennis Heads to West Point Invitational

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Bucknell women's tennis is on the road this weekend as they head to West Point, N.Y. for the West Point Invitational. The tournament will take place from Friday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 28.

Setting the Scene

What: West Point Invitational
Dates: Friday, Sept. 26 - Sunday, Sept. 28
Where: Malek Tennis Center - West Point, N.Y.

Bucknell's Last Time Out: Bucknell Invitational

Cameron King went undefeated in both singles and doubles to lead the Bison at their home Bucknell Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
The two-day home event was a round-robin style tournament with four-player singles groups and four-tandem doubles groups. Bucknell hosted Lafayette, Slippery Rock, IUP, Saint Francis and Millersville.
King won all three of her singles matches and all three of her doubles matches with Riley Jennings to have the best record of the Bison. King defeated Sophia Pacheco from Lafayette in two sets (6-2, 6-4), Emma Marais from Saint Francis in three sets (4-6, 6-2, 10-3) and Nadia Rodewald from Slippery Rock (6-2, 6-1) in singles across the two days. King and Jennings defeated doubles teams from Saint Francis, Millersville and Lafayette to secure a 3-0 doubles record.
Captain Mirra Manolov went undefeated in her singles matches facing two opponents from Lafayette and one from IUP. Manolov and her doubles partner, freshman Summer Even-Esh went 1-2 with their win coming on Sunday against a doubles team from Lafayette.
Mariana Shulman, Tori Allen, Natalie Devraj and Kate Purpura all went 2-1 in singles. Jaycie Mair and Jennings both went 1-2 and Abby Platt dropped all three singles matches at the Bucknell Invitational to round out singles play.
Allen and Devraj played two doubles matches on Sunday and went undefeated against their opponents from Lafayette and IUP. Rounding out doubles play, the doubles teams of Platt and Shulman and Purpura and Mair went 2-1.

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell women's tennis ended the 2024-25 season with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in the quarterfinal round of the Patriot League Championships to Lehigh.
The team landed two players on the All-Patriot League squad; Whitney King earned a first-team nod and Abby Platt earned second-team honors.
Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Bison have a lot to restructure in their lineup after losing three integral players to graduation in Whitney King, Anna Lajos and Caroline Marcus, who were all in the lineup last season.
Seniors Abby Platt and Mirra Manolov have been named captains for the 2025-26 season.
Outside of Platt earning Second Team All-Patriot League last season, she has also found her way onto the record book ahead of her senior season. The Texas native currently ranks 11th in Bucknell history for career doubles victories (60), is tied for 27th in career singles victories (45), ranks 19th in career combined victories (105) and is tied for 10th in single-season doubles victories (22). Last season, Platt went 10-15 in the second spot for singles play. Platt and King were doubles partners and went 18-8 in the one spot. Platt has been doubles partners with King since she first arrived as a freshman in 2022 and will now be looking for a new partner to finish out her career.
Last season, Manolov went 7-8 overall in singles on courts four and six and finished with an overall 5-3 record in doubles with four different partners.
Overall, Bucknell returned seven players from last season, despite losing three of their regulars in the lineup. Platt and Manolov were the returning seniors to the squad. The Bison return two juniors to the squad from last season in Tori Allen and Jaycie Mair.
Allen played across courts two, three and four last year. She went 10-14 overall in singles and 7-11 in doubles with five different partners. Mair competed across courts three, four and five in 2024-25. She went 10-14 in singles and 7-10 in doubles.
At the sophomore level, Bucknell returned three athletes in Riley Jennings, Natalie Devraj and Cameron King.
Riley Jennings had a solid freshman campaign as she went 11-3 overall in singles across courts four, five and six. The North Carolina native went undefeated in Patriot League singles with a 6-0 record and was undefeated in court six singles with a 9-0 record. Jennings finished 9-9 overall in doubles with a dual doubles record of 8-7 across courts two and three with three different partners. She ended the 2024-25 season on a seven-match singles winning streak.
Devraj went 8-3 overall in singles across courts four, five and six. She finished 7-5 overall in doubles on court three with four different partners. Cameron King went 8-2 overall in singles across courts five and six. She finished 11-1 overall in doubles on across courts two and three with five different partners.
The Bison welcomed a freshman class of three this fall; Summer Even-Esh, Katherine Purpura and Mariana Shulman.
Even-Esh comes to Bucknell from New Jersey and was a three-time First-Team All-State and one-time Second Team All-State player at Manasquan High School. Individually, she went undefeated in the regular seasons of both 2023 and 2024 and was a two-time first singles Monmouth County Champion, four-time decision champion and four-time Central Jersey Group Two Semifinalist. Throughout high school, she had an overall record of 89-9.
Purpura joined the Bison from California where she was a two-time league doubles player of the year and earned various awards from Orange County. She was a San Joaquin League Doubles Champion and two-time Orange Coast League Doubles Champion. Throughout high school she garnered over 100 career wins.
Shulman came to Bucknell from Massachusetts where she was a two-time league MVP. She also was a GCL League Champion and two-time New England Sectional Champion.

A Look Ahead

The Bison will next head to Richmond, Ky. for the Eastern Kentucky Invitational. The tournament will take place on Friday, Oct. 3 and Saturday, Oct. 4.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tori Allen

Natalie Devraj

Summer Even-Esh

Riley Jennings

Cameron King

Whitney King

Anna Lajos

Jaycie Mair

Mirra Manolov

Caroline Marcus

Abby Platt

Katherine Purpura

Mariana Shulman