Women's Tennis Hosts Saint Francis and Villanova

Friday, February 13

South Williamsport, Pa.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Saint Francis

Photo by: Isabelle Roes

Women's Tennis Hosts Saint Francis and Villanova

2/10/2026 2:13:00 PM | Women's Tennis

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Bucknell women's tennis is set to host a full weekend of home Bison tennis for the second straight week as they face Saint Francis on Friday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. and Villanova on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 1 p.m.

The Bison are entering the matches 4-1 overall after splitting their matches last weekend with a win over Mercyhurst and a loss to Temple.

Bucknell (4-1) vs Saint Francis (3-5)

When: Friday, Feb. 13 — 6 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center — Williamsport, Pa.

Bucknell (4-1) vs Villanova (3-4)

When: Saturday, Feb. 14 — 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center - South Williamsport, Pa.

Bucknell's Last Time Out:

The Bison split the weekend with a win over Mercyhurst on Saturday and a loss to Temple on Sunday to move them to 4-1 on the season.
On Saturday, Bucknell women's tennis moved to 4-0 on the season as it defeated Mercyhurst 6-1 with Jaycie Mair clinching the victory.The Bison opened the contest strongly as they went 3-0 in doubles play to earn the doubles point and a 1-0 lead. Abby Platt and Riley Jennings defeated Daria Rogova and Simone Mercier 6-2 on court one, Mair and Mirra Manolov defeated Kiersten Brown and Ellyana Jacobs 6-1 on court two and Natalie Devraj and Cameron King defeated Celeste Davis and Mollie Gray 6-2 on court three. The first three singles matches went all Bucknell's way with Jaycie Mair's court four, two set win (6-2, 6-1) clinching the Bison's fourth consecutive win. Jennings defeated Mercier in two sets (6-0, 6-4) on court two and Tori Allen defeated Brown in comeback fashion on court three in three sets (1-6, 6-4, 6-1). The next singles match to finish was the court one match between Platt and Rogova, where Rogova won in three sets (3-6, 7-5, 4-6).. That win would prove to be the lone point for Mercyhurst as King and Manolov would go on to win both of their singles matches in two sets. King defeated Davis 6-3, 6-2 and Manolov finished off the afternoon with a shutout win (6-0, 6-0) on court six).
On Sunday, Bucknell women's tennis (4-1) fell to Temple 7-0 as it picked up its first loss of the season. Temple opened the day by earning the doubles point with wins on courts two and three as Irmak Ozturk and Tianni Zhou defeated Jaycie Mair and Mirra Manolov in two sets (6-2) and Marianthi Christoforidou and Yasmin Costa defeated Natalie Devraj and Cameron King 6-1. Abby Platt and Riley Jennings were leading the court one doubles match 5-3 over Thamara Frasser and Maria Martinez when the Owls secured the point, so the match went unfinished. Temple blanked Bucknell 6-0 in singles play to end the match with a 7-0 overall victory and hand the Bison their first loss of 2026. Ozturk defeated Platt on court one in two sets (6-3, 7-5). Christoforidou took a two set win (7-5, 6-2) over Jennings on court two. On court three, Frasser defeated Tori Allen in two sets (6-2, 6-2). Costa won her match on court four over Mair in two sets (6-3, 6-3). Nina Andreoni defeated Devraj on court five in two sets (6-3, 6-2). Court six also went the Owls way, completing the sweep, as Martinez won the match in two sets (7-5, 6-4) over freshman Summer Even-Esh.

Bucknell at a Glance

Mirra Manolov and Mariana Shulman lead the Bison in singles wins this year with eight apiece.
The doubles team of Abby Platt and Riley Jennings leads the team in doubles wins with five.
Overall in doubles play with an assortment of different partners, Cameron King holds the most Bison wins with 10.
Most recently, Bucknell went 1-1 on the weekend with a 6-1 win over Mercyhurst on Saturday followed up by the first loss of the season to Temple on Sunday.
Bucknell went 2-0 on its spring opening weekend defeating Mercyhurst and Mount St Mary's both 4-3 with the court five match being the clincher. Mirra Manolov and Jaycie Mair were each responsible for a clinching match.
At the ITA Conference Masters Championship, Abby Platt made it to the quarterfinal round, Riley Jennings was eliminated in the round-of-16 and the doubles group of Platt and Jennings lost in their quarterfinals match.
Bucknell played in one dual match in the fall with the Bison coming out on top of Millersville 5-2, winning all doubles matches and four-of-six singles matches.
The Bison played three tournaments in the fall, one at home and two on the road. Bucknell tested out doubles teams in the fall tournaments in order to finalize the groups heading into the spring season.
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 had to restructure 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.
The Bison welcomed a freshman class of three this fall; Summer Even-Esh, Katherine Purpura and Mariana Shulman.

Saint Francis at a Glance

The Red Flashes enter the match 3-5 after falling to Duquesne 2-5 on Sunday.
Saint Francis found its three wins against Le Moyne, Colgate and Binghamton.
The team's four other losses (outside of Duquesne) came at the hands of Buffalo, Navy, Penn State and Eastern Michigan.
Helena Lynn leads Saint Francis in singles victories with 14 overall and four in dual matches across courts three and four.
The doubles pair of Emma Marais and Sophia Cunningham leads the Red Flashes with a 9-2 overall record and a 5-1 dual record on court three.

Villanova at a Glance

Villanova enters the contest 3-4 off of a two-game winning streak on a weekend sweep over Seton Hall and Lehigh.
Alongside their weekend sweep, the Wildcats have also defeated Sacred Heart this season.
Villanova has found its four losses against Penn State, UPenn, Army and the University of Delaware.
In their last time out at Lehigh, the Wildcats dropped the doubles point with the duo of Callahan and Gehrig being the lone win on court one, but they came back in singles playing winning five of the matches to secure the win. Gehrig, Gondorova, Monti, Stevens and Kornyeva won their matches. The one singles loss was the court one match where Corcoran was defeated in two sets.

Up Next

Bucknell will travel for the first time since the end of January. The Bison will start by opening Patriot League play against Boston University on Friday, Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 21 Bucknell will play a non-conference match against Merrimack in North Andover to finish the weekend.