The Villanova men’s and women’s tennis teams took to the court this weekend, as the men competed at Saint Joseph’s and the women hosted the Villanova/Delaware invitational.
The women’s team put on a strong performance at their third competition of the fall season, facing off at Villanova’s own tennis complex. The three-day event included matchups with Drexel, Army, Georgetown, Seton Hall, and Delaware.
The ‘Cats opened the weekend looking sharp, with senior captain Maggie Gehrig, sophomore Olivia Corcoran, junior captain Miriam Gondorova, sophomore Jenna Stevens and freshman Alina Kornyeva all securing singles wins for Villanova. Doubles play featured four wins for the Wildcats with easy victories for junior Lauren Monti and Corcoran, 6-1, and freshman Riley Cicero and Gehrig, 6-0, and closer matches for Savie Seebald and Stevens, 6-4, and Emi Callahan and Kornyeva, 7-6.
On Saturday, Villanova made an even performance, with singles victories from Monti and Gehrig. A strong delivery from Maddie Halls and Kornyeva, and Callahan and Stevens matched them in doubles play.
“We’re still kind of experimenting with the combinations,” head coach Steve Reiniger said. “But we have a good idea when we go into the spring, what we want to do with the lineup on both singles and doubles.”
The final day of the competition saw one victory for Villanova. Gondorova gave a standout performance in singles with her win over Army to finish out the weekend.
“[Gondorova] has been dealing with injuries all of last spring and into this year, and it was good to finally see her.” Reiniger said. “She played two matches this weekend and finally started playing how I know she’s capable of playing.”
Over at Saint Joe’s, the men’s team impressed in their second competition of the fall season with strong performances in each of their draws. This was the men’s sixth consecutive year competing in this invitational.
Villanova started the Grey draw out strong, with two wins over Thomas Jefferson to advance to the quarterfinals. Both stepped up for easy victories with sophomore Quincy Jones besting Antonio Mateos, 6-2, 6-2, and junior Kush Anand delivering in his win over Filip Slavkovic, 6-2, 6-3. Jones and Anand played hard in their second rounds, but both suffered narrow defeats.
Freshman Ryan Benoit impressed over the weekend with victories over Haverford students Maxfield Ma, 6-4, 6-1, and Arnav Nemali, 6-1, 6-3. Benoit cruised to the finals before ultimately falling short.
“I was really happy with his performance,” head coach Bradley Adams said. “It’s something for him to learn from going forward.”
The Cats’ showed up in the Black draw with sophomore Jack Sherner automatically advancing in a bye, an initial close loss by freshman Ethan Solop, 4-6, 3-6, and wins from Evan Ancu and Cameron Kruep.
Sherner bested Thomas Jefferson’s Johary Rabetrano, 7-5, 6-1 to move on to the finals. Kruep dominated with an easy quarterfinal victory over Elliot Jarosz, 6-1, 6-3, and ultimately advanced to the finals after knocking his teammate, Ancu, out of the draw. Sophomores Sherner and Kruep matched up in finals for a Wildcat faceoff resulting in a close won match by Kruep, 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.
“I think they really were dominant,” Adams said. “They played an aggressive game style, and obviously beat some pretty good players.”
Pairs Sherner and Jones, and Solop and Kruep, showed up in doubles play with wins bringing them to the quarterfinals. Solop and Kreup fought hard in a tiebreak victory, 7-6, 8-6 over Swarthmore to advance to semifinals where the duo ultimately fell short.
“We didn’t reach the finals of the doubles,” Adams said. “But I was very impressed with the way they played.”
This weekend wraps up the women’s fall season strong as they look forward to their matchups in spring 2026.
“We’re pretty happy about all three tournaments,” Reiniger said. “We’ve been pretty good representing Villanova on the court, and that’s always important.”
Men’s tennis will face off in Princeton, N.J., for the ITA Regional Championships starting Thursday, Oct. 16, and concluding Tuesday, Oct. 21.
