SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The RPI women's tennis team opened its fall competition with a strong showing at the Union Invitational this weekend, as the Engineers captured championships in two singles flights and the top doubles flight during the two-day event.
Gauri Muliyil highlighted the weekend by winning the A Singles championship with three consecutive victories. Muliyil opened the bracket with a 6-3, 6-2 quarterfinal win over St. Lawrence's Ariane Karera before defeating Union's Loden Bradstreet, 6-0, 6-4, in the semifinals. She completed the championship run with a three-set victory against Sam Ostrander of New Paltz, taking the opening set 6-1 before prevailing 10-7 in the deciding match tiebreak following a 6-4 setback in the second set.
Kayla Wheeler added another flight title for the Engineers in B Singles. Wheeler cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Union's Maddy Alecia in the quarterfinals before earning a 6-4, 6-0 semifinal win over Madeleine Sutro of Ithaca. The championship match was slated to feature two RPI players, with Wheeler earning the title by default over teammate
Juliette Ceas.
Ceas also recorded a victory during the weekend, rallying past Union's Ava Boncordo, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8, to advance through the B Singles bracket.
Anushka Jaiswal competed in the A Singles flight, where she took the opening set of her quarterfinal against Ostrander before falling 4-6, 6-1, 10-4. Jaiswal later closed her singles weekend with an 8-2 victory over New Paltz's Patrycja Filonik in the seventh-place match.
RPI also claimed the A Doubles championship behind Muliyil and
Victoria Sarabosing. The duo began with an 8-6 quarterfinal victory against Addison Jones and Elisa Iuri of St. Lawrence before edging Union's Bradstreet and Alecia, 8-7 (7-2), in the semifinals. Muliyil and Sarabosing then delivered an 8-3 victory over St. Lawrence's Yvette Karera and Ariane Karera in the championship match to complete an unbeaten doubles run.
Jaiswal and Wheeler also enjoyed success in the A Doubles draw, opening with an 8-1 win over New Paltz's Ostrander and Lula Brown-Vann. The RPI pairing pushed the Karera duo from St. Lawrence to a tiebreak in the semifinals before falling 8-7 (7-4).
Overall, Muliyil finished the tournament unbeaten across singles and doubles competition, earning championships in both A flights, while Wheeler added the B Singles crown and a pair of victories across singles and doubles play for the Engineers.
