Faust victorious in ‘B’ singles tourney

The Farnsworth Invitational is a three-day tournament in which the eight participating teams — Princeton, St. Johns, Yale, George Washington, Penn, Binghamton, Columbia and Cornell — split time between Princeton’s outdoor courts at Lenz Tennis Center and the indoor courts at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The tournament is divided into four divisions — A Singles, B Singles, A Doubles and B Doubles — and the Tigers experienced success at nearly every level. Sophomore Alex Faust won the B Singles division with a comeback victory over Columbia’s Haig Schneiderman. Faust cruised through the first four rounds of competition to reach the final round, and after dropping the first set of the finals, 6-7, he rallied to win the next two sets, 6-4, 6-1.

In the A Singles division, Princeton advanced three players to the second round and one into the quarterfinals. Junior George Carpeni was the last Tiger left standing, but he fell to Columbia’s Mihai Nichifor — an eventual finalist — in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-3. The loss ended the Tigers’ hopes of winning both singles divisions.

In the B Doubles division, Princeton’s two teams were eliminated in the first round. The tandem of sophomore Ryan Kim and junior Ilya Trubov, however, sailed through three rounds and into the A division finals. Kim and Trubov fell to the talented Columbia team of Bogdan Borta and Jon Wong, 8-4.

The Princeton women were close to home this weekend as well, competing in the Cissie Leary Invitational hosted by Penn. The Cissie Leary is also a three-day tournament, featuring players from Princeton, Yale, Penn, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and Temple.

With three of its top members — junior Melissa Saiontz, freshman Rachel Saiontz and freshman Lauren McHale — competing in the ITA All-America event this week in Los Angeles, the women’s team struggled in Philadelphia.

After dropping a tough match earlier in the day to Temple’s Anastasiia Rukavyshnykova, senior Kelly Stewart beat Cornell’s Catherine Duboc, 6-3, 6-3. Stewart fell to Penn’s Emily Wolf, 6-1, 6-4, in her final match in the red bracket.

Senior Kristen Scott suffered two tough losses in her singles bracket. The doubles team of Stewart and Scott, however, enjoyed more success. Stewart and Scott won their opening round match, 8-5, against the Penn team of Wolf and Jordyn Shaffer.

Unfortunately for Princeton, Scott and Stewart were unable to capitalize on their momentum heading into the later rounds, dropping their next two matches by scores of 8-4 and 8-5.

The men’s team plays next at the ITA All-America event in Oklahoma next weekend, while the women are off until the Duke Invitational starting on Nov. 7.