Tennis Earns 13 Victories At UNCW Invite
September 16, 2008 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2008
WILMINGTON, N.C. - The East Carolina men's and women's tennis teams began their fall seasons this past weekend at the UNCW Collegiate Tennis Invitational inside the Country Club of Landfall. The Pirates turned in a total of 10 singles and three doubles victories to highlight their first fall competition.
Sophomore Henrik Skalmerud (3-1) led an ECU quartet that recorded at least two wins each as senior Aleksey Kochetov, junior Brooke Walter and freshman Rocio Cabanillas joined the Norway native, posting 2-1 records.
After defeating Alex Wetherell of UNCW 6-2 and 6-1, Skalmerud fell to Akash Gujararti of North Carolina State 3-6, 6-0 and 11-7 to move into the consolation bracket. From there, the sophomore won his final two matches over a pair of Seahawks, Kinshuk Sharma (6-4, 4-6, 10-7) and Gustavo Bertei (6-0, 6-3). Kochetov lost his first match in Flight A to Elon's Carlin Murray, 7-6 (1) and 7-5 but rebounded to top Michael Pereira of UNCW (6-7 (6), 6-4, 10-6) and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell from Elon (6-3, 4-6, 10-5). Masciorini picked up the Pirates' final singles win, defeating Seahawk Anton Nikolov (7-5, 6-4) in the first round of Flight C.
Walter was responsible for two of the four singles wins for the women, pushing past UNCG's Jessica Eblen in straight sets (6-2, 6-2) before falling to UNCW's Lindsay Leblang (5-7, 7-6 (1)). However, she returned to claim third place in the flight after dismissing Laura Graybill from Elon 6-3 and 6-2. Cabanillas received a bye into the semifinals of the Teal Flight after her opponent from UNCW withdrew with an illness. She then lost to Neils Barringer of the Wolfpack (6-0, 6-1) but defeated North Carolina's Jocelyn Ffriend to take third-place.
In doubles action, Cabanillas and fellow rookie Aurey LePottier won their first three matches to qualify for the final. They bested Lauren Fuenning and Hartley Collins from UNCW, 8-3, Britney Cloer and Jessica Elben from Elon, 8-3 and Pender Sessoms (NCSU) and Susan Bitetti (Furman), 8-6. However, the ECU pair would not fare as well in the championship match as Barringer and Diana Mortlock of the Wolfpack took the tilt, 8-1.
