The Quinnipiac Invitational held last weekend included girls from Fordham, URI, UConn, Sacred Heart, Army, Fairfield University, and of course Quinnipiac. It was the Bobcats women’s tennis team who walked away the winners of both the A and B flights, and had a second-place finisher in the B flight doubles tournament.

Freshman Rachel Cantor and junior Adrienne Markison won their respective flights, but took different routes in doing so.

Markison won the B flight and to say she simply earned her victory would be an understatement. With a backhand winner in the tiebreaker, a stroke that worked all day long, she came back from trailing 9-5 in the tiebreaker to win 12-10. Point after point, she pushed Army’s Jess Ahn to her limit, until finally breaking her and coming away as champion after winning the first set 6-2 and dropping the second set 6-1.

Cantor plowed her way through the competition – only losing one set in the entire tournament en route to an A flight victory. In the finals on Sunday, she won with ease, winning the first set 6-1 and the second set 6-2.

It was her all-around play that ended the tournament early for Cantor’s opponents. Overall endurance and the control of most rallies wore out her opponents and kept them from getting the upper hand.

Quinnipiac head coach Mike Quitko also said he was pleased with the performances by Markison and Cantor.

“I was impressed by their tenacity and their willingness to do what they had to do,” he said. “They played different games today and their successes came from playing those different styles. We preach effort and intelligence and that had a lot to do with their victories today.”

Natalie Duckor and Lisanne Steinert made it to the finals of the B flight in the doubles tournament, but lost 8-4 to Rhode Island’s Pam Emery and Amanda Barletta.

In the singles competition, Quinnipiac’s Mary Wilson made it the quarterfinals of the A flight, Steinert made it to the quarterfinals of the B flight and Duckor made it to the semifinals of the C flight.

Both the Cantor/Wilson and Markison/Sarah Viebrock teams made it to the semifinals of the doubles A flight, but lost to Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively.

Quitko seemed very happy with the overall performance of his team.

“We’ve got a great bunch of athletes,” Quitko said. “In general, we’ve got stuff to work on but it was definitely a nice first showing.”

After their success in their home invitational, the Bobcats will have a positive outlook for their trip to Army next weekend.

“Next weekend is a larger tournament,” Quitko said. “I’m not quite sure the lineup I’ll choose yet, but the hope is that we have another successful weekend like we just had.”

The next time the women will be at home is Tuesday, Oct. 13 against Connecticut.