Men’s and women’s tennis competed in the Bucknell Invitational this weekend. For the women, it was the fall season opener. For the men, it was the second of three fall competitions to prepare the team for the spring.

In the men’s tournament, senior Brandon Goldstein and junior Brian Stefanowicz went 3-0 to win the Flight A Doubles tournament and freshmen Evan Alexander was also victorious in all three of his matches to win the Flight D Singles title. Also earning singles wins were Goldstein, junior Chris Matturi, senior Brian Pinkard, senior Jake Lazar, and junior Gavin Studner.

The pair of Goldstein and Stefanowicz came into the fall season following a strong spring performance as doubles partners, where they went 9-3 overall. With the exception of one loss against Villanova, the pair is 4-0 this fall.

“I feel like I’m playing some of my better tennis [this year],” Goldstein said. “I’m really happy about the doubles, that was my last invitational-like tournament, and to be able to win the doubles top flight was something that Brian and I were really proud about.”

Alexander started his college career off strong with a big title win of the Flight D Singles, his first tournament win.

The men’s team is back in action again in the Patriot League Kickoff tournament at Lehigh on October 25.

In the women’s tournament, junior Catherine Senopoulos, freshman Elena Cerati and senior Jordyn Spellberg opened up their fall season by winning matches in the Flight B, Flight B and Flight C singles tournaments, respectively.

On the double’s side, Senopoulos and sophomore Rocine Moschella recovered from a first round loss to win the back end of their flight, defeating teammate pairs Spellberg/Reiling and Nixon/Cerati.

“I think we’re really trying to gain some confidence going into [this fall] because we play with these teams every single match so I think we need to know that we can play with these teams and we can beat them in the spring,” Senopoulos said when asked about the team’s goals for this fall season. “It’s always good when we come out with some singles wins,”

Similarly to the men’s team, the women’s team is looking to gain experience heading into their main season in the spring.

Senior Caroline Nixon is looking forward to the spring optimistically, stating, “I believe that this year we will be playing some of the best tennis we’ve ever played in years past.”

The women’s team returns to the courts on October 4 for the Siena Doubles Invitational. They will also compete in the Patriot League Kickoff tournament at the end of October to close out the fall season.