New York, NY - The doubles team of Malissa Gilanchi and Sonia Tsay won their first round match for the only Hofstra victory on the opening day of the Columbia Invitational. The Pride dropped all eight singles matches and two doubles matches.
Gilanchi and Tsay defeated Joanna Zwirblus/Nevena Selakovic of St. John's, 8-3. The duo will face second-seeded Renata Arshavskaya and Adel Arshavskaya (Columbia) in the second round.
In other doubles action, Paige Polizois and Bianca Derrick lost to Columbia's Chelsea Davis and Dina Shapoval, 8-3. The pair advances to the consolation round where they have a first round bye. Brooke Sailer and Elena Ivanova lost to Tiana Takenaga/Ioana Alecsiu (Columbia), 8-2, in the first round and will face Ece Firat and Lyubov Pogribnyak (St. John's) in the consolation round.
Ivanova fell in her Flight A singles match to Columbia's Crystal Leung, 6-3, 6-2, and will face Zwirblus in the consolation round. Tsay also lost her Flight A singles match to Diamond Adams (St. John's), 6-1, 6-4. Tsay will meet Ioana Alecsiu of Columbia in the consolation bracket.
In Flight B action, Polizois lost to Pogribnyak and will face Nakita Austin of St. John's in the consolation round. Gilanchi lost her first round singles match to Takenaga and then dropped her consolation round matchup to Austin.
Derrick also lost two matches Friday, falling to Sharissa Ryan (Fairfield), 6-4, 6-0, in the opening match and then to third-seeded Firat in the consolation round. Brooke Sailer wrapped up Hofstra's singles contingent with a loss to Columbia's Dina Shapoval. Sailer will play Firat in the consolations.
