Rubio Paces Wildcat Tennis Teams At ITA East Region Championships

9/18/2021 2:25:00 PM

By: CONTACT: Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications | (716) 839-8385 | mmiranto@daemen.edu

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FLUSHING, N.Y. - Sophomore Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) earned a pair of singles wins and advanced to the round of 16 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II East Region Championships held this weekend at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center - site of the U.S. Open.

Rubio was one of eight Daemen athletes competing this weekend - four women and four men. She was joined on the trip by teammates Christina Stasiuk (Bowmansville, N.Y.), Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.) and Yinnett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.), while Jose Williamson III (Minneapolis, Minn.), Zachary Laplante (Ottawa, Ont.), Luis de Vuyst (Antwerp, Belgium) and Sam Greco (Amherst, N.Y.) represented the Wildcat men.

WOMEN'S SINGLES DRAW
Rubio entered as the No. 6 seed in a singles draw that featured 64 competitors from 16 East Region institutions. She picked up an opening round victory (6-2, 6-1) over Yana Semerly of Assumption on Friday afternoon. Her second round match against Carolina Chaves of Adelphi lasted late into Friday evening and was eventually finished Saturday morning as Rubio moved on, 7-5, 6-4.

In the round of 16, Rubio met Annuciata De-Souza from Post (Conn.). De-Souza, a junior from England, took the opening set 6-3, but Rubio evened things up with a 6-3 second set of her own. In the end, De-Souza got the third set tiebreak, winning 10-6 to move on to the quarterfinal round.

Stasiuk, Scime and Del Leon also competed in the singles draw. Del Leon fell 6-1, 6-1 to Semerly in a play-in round match for the right to face Rubio. Scime dropped a 6-2, 6-3 decision to New Haven's Ivana Andric - the No. 11 seed. And Stasiuk, playing in this tournament for the fourth time in her career, battled to a third-set tiebreak loss to Caroline Fawzy of Queens. Stasiuk dropped the opening set 6-0, but evened the match with a 7-6 second set before falling 10-7 in the tiebreak.

WOMEN'S DOUBLES DRAW
Stasiuk and Rubio teamed up to win an opening round match in the doubles draw. Daemen's top pair took down Assumption's Julia Chappell and Cara McCormack in an 8-5 pro set. That's as far as they could get, however, as the No. 2 doubles seed - Adelphi's Catarina Federici and Barbie Quagliardi - ousted them in the second round, 8-0.

In the play-in round, Scime and Del Leon, both freshmen, dropped an 8-1 decision to Estela Carra and Liria Lorria of Franklin Pierce.

MEN'S SINGLES DRAW
Graduate student Jose Williamson III (Minneapolis, Minn.) was the lone Wildcat to pick up an opening round victory. Making his season debut, Williamson III took down Adlephi's Luke Attride-Stirling in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) before bowing out with a 6-2, 6-1 second-round loss to Jonathan Berling of Southern New Hampshire - the No. 10 seed in the 64-player field.

Laplante, a transfer from Salem (W.Va.), fell 6-2, 6-3 to conference rival Julius Upel of St. Thomas Aquinas. De Vuyst, a transfer from Coker (S.C.), dropped a 6-2, 6-2 decision to Le Moyne's Kacper Piekarek - the No. 11 seed. And Greco bowed out with a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Queens' Francisco Gonzalez.

MEN'S DOUBLES DRAW
The Wildcats were unable to breakthrough in doubles play as both pairs fell in the opening round. Laplante and de Vuyst found themselves on the wrong end of an 8-5 pro set against Stonehill's Christian Duffy and Ben Simmons. Greco and Williamson III fell 8-2 to the No. 8 doubles seed, Zicheng Zeng and Juan Estevez Hernandez from District of Columbia.

TOURNAMENT NOTES

The opening round doubles victory was the 31st in Stasiuk's career, moving her into sole possession of third place on the program's all-time doubles wins list. It also marked the 72nd combined singles/double win of her career, bringing her into a tie with Jessica Robins for third in program history.
Rubio now has 20 combined singles/doubles wins her career, three shy of moving into the top 10 in program history.
Williamson III now has 48 combined singles/doubles wins in his career. Only six players in team history have reached 50.
The 2021-22 season is the 10th for both the Daemen men's and women's tennis teams. This marks the sixth time the teams have competed in the ITA East Region Championships.

UP NEXT
The Daemen men are idle until Saturday, Oct. 9 when they host Le Moyne. The Daemen women return to action with a two-match road trip next week with a non-conference match vs. Post (Sept. 24) and their East Coast Conference opener vs. Molloy (Sept. 25).

Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 18 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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