March 29, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Bucknell women’s tennis kicks off its week by hosting Villanova at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. With winter-like weather in the forecast, the Bison will move indoors to Gerhard Fieldhouse if necessary. The team’s stay at its home courts will be a brief one as Bucknell will then head to Colgate for a 10 a.m. match on Saturday looking for their first Patriot League win of the season.
Bucknell men’s tennis was also slated to challenge Villanova on Wednesday. However, that match has been postponed. A makeup date has yet to be determined.
ABOUT THE BISON
- Bucknell split its matches last week, defeated Mount St. Mary’s 6-1 before falling to Navy by the same score. Lauren Lucido (Woodstock, Md./St. Paul’s School for Girls) went undefeated in four matches during that stretch.
- With her two singles victories against the Mountaineers and the Midshipmen, Lucido has a six-match winning streak when playing solo. All but one of those wins came in straight sets as she was challenged only by North Dakota’s Stephanie Petsis before topping her opponent 6-4, 2-6, 10-5. The six matches without a loss is Lucido’s longest streak of the season, but the not nearly the longest of her career. As a junior last season, she won her final 14 singles matches.
- Bucknell is entering its biggest record watch weekend in recent history. With four possible matches to be played, Lucido needs to win three of them to tie the Bucknell program record in combined victories. The senior is currently second with a career mark of 158-69 and is chasing Veronica Brown’s 161-90 record. Lucido also ranks second in all-time singles (81-35) and doubles (77-34) victories.
- Heading into Patriot League play, Dara Dwojewski (Chester, N.J./West Morris Mendham) had won four of her last five matches at singles as well as four of her last five at doubles. The two losses were tightly contested. At singles, she pushed her opponent from North Dakota to three sets before falling, while she and Elena Vidrascu fell 8-5 to Drake in doubles.
- Three Bison have winning records in singles matches that have gone to three sets or super tiebreakers. Among them is Courtney Casey (Rockville, Md./Georgetown Visitation), who is 2-1. The lone loss for the junior came against Navy where she fell 7-6, 3-6, 11-9 at No. 4 to Darien Sears. Dwojewski is 3-1 this year, and Lucido is 2-1. Lucido’s only loss came to Villanova’s Mikelle Mancini during fall tournament play.
- Two Bison have worked their way to winning career records. Lucido leads the way with a .696 percentage (158-69), while Dumitrita Iepuras (Chisinau, Moldova/Germantown Friends School) currently sits at .585 (86-61). Casey is looking to become a third as she is even at 47-47 in singles and doubles matches combined.
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ABOUT THE WILDCATS - Villanova makes the trip to Lewisburg with a 2-8 record in dual matches. The Wildcats have lost seven of their last eight matches with only a 4-3 in at St. Joseph’s breaking up the skid.
- Bucknell leads Villanova 10-3 in the all-time series. The Bison have won the last two dual matches, 7-0 and 6-1. The teams have become even more familiar thanks to tournament play, however. When Villanova came to the Varsity Tennis Courts for the Bucknell Invitational last September, the Orange and Blue went 7-1 in singles and 2-0 in doubles against the Wildcats. Iepuras knocked out two of Villanova’s competitors in the Flight A back draw, defeating Allison Soberg (6-2, 6-3) and Amanda Nelson (6-2, 6-1).
ABOUT THE RAIDERS
- Colgate will welcome Bucknell to Turning Stone Resort on Saturday with a 3-10 record overall. The Raiders are also 0-1 in the Patriot League after dropping a 6-1 decision to Navy last weekend that added to their current six-match losing streak.
- Colgate’s success against Navy was similar to Bucknell’s. The Raiders claimed one doubles victory before taking one singles match off the Midshipmen. Colgate’s Alex Petrini defeated Emani Decquir 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot.
- When the Patriot League Preseason Poll came out earlier this season, Colgate was picked fourth with 38 points. The Raiders finished directly behind Bucknell and Navy, which tied for second with 57 points each in the vote.
- Colgate has a slight edge over Bucknell in the series, 19-14. The Bison had the last word, however, defeating their Patriot League foe 6-1 last April. Bucknell swept the doubles action, led by Lucido and Tania Varela who won their 12th straight match together by toppling Elise DeRose and Cameron Williams 8-2. DeRose, who has since graduated, was Colgate’s lone all-league selection, earning a spot on the second team last season.
LOOKING AHEAD
Bucknell will stick with Patriot League opponents for its next three matches. First up is Army on April 9, followed by Lafayette (April 10) and Lehigh (April 13). The match with the Leopards, slated for 2 p.m. is Senior Day for the Bison.
