ROME, Ga.- A program-record six Greyhounds competed at the 2018 ITA Cup, highlighted by a fourth place singles finish from Hanna Volikova in her third consecutive trip to the event.
WOMEN'S SINGLES
Volikova made her return trip to the ITA Cup singles draw, taking an opening round win over Barbara Quagliardi of NYIT, 6-2, 6-1. The bracket's top-seed, Volikova then fell in a three-set marathon to West Florida's Berta Bonardi, 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-3.
Volikova ended fourth in the third place match, taking a 7-6(2), 6-4 loss to Vaishali George of North Georgia to finish fourth in the draw. The Greyhound senior now has three ITA Cup top-four finishes to her credit, after finishing runner-up in the singles draw each of the past two seasons.
MEN'S SINGLES
Greyhound sophomore Renato Lima drew the men's singles draw top seed Kiranpal Pannu of Columbus State in his opening round match, taking the first set from the eventual bracket champion 2-6, before falling 6-3 and 6-2 in sets two and three. Lima then fell to the consolation bracket, where he bested bracket four-seed Chase Bartlett of St. Edward's 6-2, 6-2.
Lima played in the fifth place match of the overall draw, defeating bracket three-seed Jakob Schnaitter of Azusa Pacific 6-4, 7-5.
WOMEN'S DOUBLES
The freshman duo of Nikol Alexeeva and Anna Novikova went 1-2 in their first trip to the ITA Cup, opening the event with a 6-3, 6-1 win over event three-seed Zhenia Shviadok and Sara Frendo of Cameron. In the semifinal round, the Greyhound freshmen then fell to the two-seed team of Zuza Maciejewska and Verna Schmid of Barry to fall to the third-place match of the draw.
In the third place match, Alexeeva and Novikova fell in three sets 6-1, 3-6, 10-8, to Washburn's Logan Morrissey and Alexis Czapinski to close out their event.
MEN'S DOUBLES
Dario Huber and Matej Kostadinov also made their ITA Cup debut, taking an opening match loss, 6-3, 6-4 to Filip Kesina and Jakob Schnaitter of Azusa Pacific, the bracket's three-seed. The Greyhound duo then rebounded in the consolation bracket, taking down bracket two-seed Ben Westwick and Alberto Diaz of Wichita Falls, Texas.
The UIndy pair finished sixth in the overall draw, falling in their final match to the draw's top seed, Unai Amilleta Gonzalez and Cormac McCooey of Mercyhurst.
The ITA Cup closed out the fall competition for the Greyhounds, who now look to the spring season to open in February of 2019.
