Two Bison women’s tennis players fought in the final round of the Saint Joseph’s Invitational on Sept. 11-13 for the Flight 1 title. Maria Cioffi ’16 eventually beat teammate Lisa Jouravleva ’18. This tournament marks the second championship the Bison have won this season.

Cioffi finished with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jouravleva, which brought her to 3-0 at the end of the tournament. Both athletes were 2-0 on Sept. 12 and advanced to the finals with three three-set victories.

Cioffi and Jouravleva are poised to be the top two spots on the Bison’s roster this season, and the St. Joseph’s tournament is a strong indication of the talent to be seen ahead from the pair.

“The invitational this weekend at Saint Josephs was high level tennis with six other teams competing to win. Despite the forecast for rain, we all played great and had some really competitive matches. The Flight 1 final was between two Bucknell players (Maria and Lisa), which we are really happy with. Our level of play this fall is much higher than last year and I’m excited to see where we take it this year,” Melissa Parks ’17 said.

The Bison had success in the other brackets as well. Parks defeated her Saint Joseph’s opponent with a 6-4, 6-1 set. She then went on to the Flight 3 finals, but fell against her Delaware opponent. Allie Lane ’18, in the Flight 4 bracket, won a straight set over her Norfolk State opponent before losing in the finals to George Washington. Lauren Fishbein ’19 and Danielle Gannon ’19 won the Flight 2 consolation bracket in doubles play.

“I think that the team preformed well at Saint Joe’s. Almost everyone had matches left to play on the final day, which means we stayed in the draws up until the finals. Everyone is playing very smart points with relatively solid execution, especially in singles play. I have a lot of confidence in my teammates this fall and I’m excited to see how far we go in the next three tournaments,” Cioffi said.

The Bison will next be seen at home for the Bucknell Invite on Sept. 18-20.