Loose Captures Flight B Singles Title at Big Green Invitational; Named Prince/NEC Tennis Player of the Week

11/1/05 -- Senior Jessica Loose (Scheessel, Germany) defeated Jamie Kaplan of Dartmouth, 6-2, 7-5, to win the Flight B singles title at the Dartmouth Big Green Invitational in Hanover, N.H. this weekend.

The championship was the first by a Blackbird this season and the first by Loose in an LIU uniform.

For her efforts, she was named the Prince/Northeast Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week. She is the third LIU student-athlete to earn league Player of the Week honors this week.

After defeating Erica Federgreen (Stonybrook) in the first round, Loose upset the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in consecutive matches. She defeated No.4 Catherine Duboc of Cornell, 6-0, 6-2, then advanced to the semifinal round by defeating No. 5 Aimee Charest of Boston University, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

In the semis, Loose defeated Seton Hall's Danielle Viola, 6-1, 6-1, to move on to the finals.

Freshman Ashley Harvey (Randallstown, Md.) also competed in the Flight B singles draw and won her first two matches before dropping a higly-competitve match to Kaplan, 6-2, 2-6, 10-7, in the quarterfinals.

The doubles squad of senior Krystina Bachner (Penfield, N.Y.) and Merve Koksal (Ankara, Turkey) upset 5th-seeded Caroline Huignard and Ashley Lipton of Syracuse in the second round, 8-5, before falling in the quarterfinal round.

LIU has concluded its fall portion of the season.