Women’s Tennis Claims Six Flights at Season-Opening Moore Invitational

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A strong start to the 2025-26 season saw the Navy women’s tennis team win six total flights at the 16th annual Bill & Sandra Moore Invitational on Sunday morning at the Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium and Tose Family Tennis Center.
 
With Navy players capturing all three main doubles draws along with the “A”, “B” and “D” singles brackets over the three-day tournament, the Mids were led by sophomore Grace Li capturing the “A” singles draw and the “C” doubles flight while junior Olivia Fermo won the “B” singles title and “A” doubles bracket. Additionally, three different freshmen also recorded at least a share of a draw victory in their first college action.
 
Singles Recap
In the “A” singles flight, Li and fellow sophomores Molly Bellia and Emma Gu all found their way to the semifinals, as Li used a first-round bye and quarterfinal win over Addison Felts (Mary Washington) to earn a semifinal showdown with Gu, who knocked off St. Bonaventure’s Sienna Smith and FDU’s Yelena Kim in her move up the bracket. Facing off, Li edged out her teammate in a 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 battle to advance to the finals. For Bellia, she defeated Binghamton’s Apara Khandare and Monmouth’s Hana McKinney to reach the semifinals, then beat UMW’s Isabella Rotaru to reach the finals. Li then claimed the top-draw victory with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Bellia.
 
Another all-Navy final came in the “B” singles draw, as Fermo notched wins over Faith Sadgrove (Monmouth), Sarah Sandoval Bañuelos (UMW) and Gisella Vlassis (Lehigh) to earn a title showdown with freshman Sydney Fuger, who knocked off Gabriella Blumberg (SBU), Angel Walia (Binghamton) and Ronit Khromchenko (Lehigh) to move along towards the finals. In the draw final, Fermo dispatched her teammate with a 6-0, 6-2 victory. Elsewhere in the second singles flight, junior captain Manci Pal recovered from a first-round loss to the Bonnies’ Sara Montano Parada by picking up back-draw wins over Maya Bayat (George Mason), Sadgrove and Sophia Fredericks-McKee (FDU) to claim the consolation title.
 
The “C” singles draw found sophomore Peyton Amspacher-Philemon making the finals, beating SBU’s Kelly Barnes, GMU’s Brooklyn Siegel and FDU’s Valentina Silva to match up with Oleksandra Ovsiienko (FDU), but Ovsiienko outlasted Asmpacher-Philemon in the final, 6-2, 3-6, 10-3. Freshman Anna Wiskowski also reached the semifinals, beating Binghamton’s Clara Arbeloa Lopez in the quarters but dropping the semifinal contest with Ovsiienko, while junior Anna Jordaan and freshman Nicole Fu both reached the quarterfinal round before losing to Silva and Ovsiienko, respectively. Fu then battled back with three victories in the back-draw to earn the consolation title.
 
In the “D” singles draw, another all-Navy final featured freshman Jina Cha and junior Julia Lee, while sophomore Ji Soo Oh also advanced to the semifinal round. For Cha, her collegiate debut found her knocking off UMW’s Naomi Feltman, Lehigh’s Skye Yonehara and FDU’s Ann Kato to reach the finals, where she battled past Lee in a 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 showdown. Lee advanced her way to the finals with wins over Mason’s Shivaani Ganesh, Monmouth’s Ximena Cano and her teammate Oh, while Oh’s two wins came against Binghamton’s Samantha Jaros and Lehigh’s Audrey Harrington.
 
Doubles Recap
With Fermo and Fu partnering up in the “A” draw, the duo picked up wins over SBU’s Tamara Bachmann and Sienna Smith as well as Lehigh’s Maggie Forkner and Lena Dogadalski to advance to the finals, where the Navy pairing notched the 6-1 victory over Anastasia Lim and Yelena Kim of FDU to claim the title. Also in the bracket, Lee and Gu pulled out a first-round win over Binghamton’s Loren Cuomo and Nitya Vyas before falling to Lim and Kim.
 
The “B” doubles draw saw Amspacher-Philemon and Oh claim the title, garnering wins over Monmouth’s Rebecca Fisher and Jillian Gray, UMW’s Feltman and Evelyn Snyder, the Bonnies’ Montano Parada and Kelly Barnes before stifling the FDU pair of Fredericks-McKee and Katsiaryna Kostsina for a 6-2 win. Also in the bracket, Fuger and Bellia beat Binghamton’s Walia and Jaros in the quarterfinals but were upended by Kostsina and Fredericks-McKee in the semis.
 
Wiskowski and Li completed the doubles sweep by getting the “C” draw title with wins over UMW’s Emily Tharpe and Abiela Wang as well as Mason’s Avleen Waraich and Lakshya Motam before surging past Lehigh’s Harrington and Yonehara in a 6-4 win. Elsewhere in the draw, Pal and Cha grabbed wins over Binghamton’s Kayla Castellano and Julia Pedraza Palacios and the UMW team of Sandoval Bañuelos and Natalie Howell before dropping the semifinal match with Harrington and Yonehara.
 
Up Next
Navy will return to action Sept. 25-28, sending Emma Gu and Molly Bellia to the Milwaukee Tennis Classic while the remainder of the squad hosts the Navy Blue & Gold Invitational.