The tennis team was dropped from championship contention after losing in first round of the West Point Eastern Tennis Invitational this weekend.
After their loss, the Pirates were dropped to the consolation rounds where Coutrney Kilarski reached the bracket finals.
Kilarski lost a match to Fairleigh Dickinson senior Jessica DeCarlos, 8-5.
Kilarski was forced to the consolation round after she lost to sophomore Prerana Appineni of Stony Brook, 6-3, 6-0. To reach the consolation finals, Kilarski defeated sophomore Nicole Ross of Siena, 8-0, and freshman Kari Pope of Army, 8-5.
"She (Appineni) had really good ground strokes along with a solid first serve," Kilarski said. "Our points were long but she eventually hit a better ball that I couldn't get to."
The tournament itself included 32 teams in a flight format. Each team entered four single players and four double players with no repeats in the main draw.
As for the rest of the Pirates, junior Belfin Sunbul reached the semi-finals of the "Honors" consolation bracket but dropped the match to Syracuse's junior Christina Tan, 8-3. Sunbul defeated Pittsburgh's junior Adela Aprodu, 8-5, and sophomore Alyssa Lucas of Niagara ,8-2, to reach the semi-finals.
Senior Liza Chu and junior Slavina Kaplonska both won their "Country" single bracket match, with Chu defeating junior Joanna Macaluso of Marist, 8-2, and Kaplonska topping Marist's sophomore Julianna Vilas Boas, 8-6.
"Honor" and "country" are hte names of the different brackets in the tournament.
Freshman Karina Cordero defeated Siena's junior Jessica Asselin in her first singles match before falling to junior Kaitlyn Carpenter of the University of Massachusetts in straight sets.
In doubles competition, senior Alexandra Harvey and junior Slavina Kaplonska lost to Pittsburgh's pair of freshmen Gabrielle Catanzanti and Karma Parbhu, 8-0.
They then defeated Fairleigh Dickinson's duo of senior Jessica DeCarlos and junior Tina Martine, 8-5, in the consolation round before falling to Long Island University's pair of senior Stephanie Elle and junior Dara Lahens, 8-5.
"This weekend was good for our whole team because it showed us what we need to work on for the spring," Kilaski said. "We need to play more matches and not break down during play. It also showed us that we are a competitive team and right there with majority of the big east schools."
The Pirates will be back on the court at the USTA Tournament on Oct. 10 to Oct. 12. in Flushing, New York.
Joshua Jongsma can be reached at joshua.jongsma@student.shu.edu.
