Maryland women’s tennis senior Aida Eissa delivered a perfect weekend in Annapolis, winning the Flight A singles championship at the Bill & Sandra Moore Invitational hosted by Navy.
Eissa went 4-0 in singles competition during the three-day tournament, which ran from Sept. 18-20 at the Naval Academy. Her run culminated with a dominant straight-set victory over Navy junior Emma Gu in the championship match, giving Eissa her first fall singles tournament title as a Terp.
Maryland sent Eissa, senior Katherine Hung, junior Mila Mulready and sophomore Lucia Donnelly to Annapolis. The group combined to post an impressive 8-3 record in singles competition while adding a 2-2 mark in doubles.
Eissa rolls through Flight A
Eissa began her championship run in the Round of 16 against George Mason’s Isabella Rotaru. Eissa held a 3-0 advantage when Rotaru was forced to retire because of injury, sending the Maryland senior into the quarterfinals.
Lehigh’s Margaux Devaul awaited Eissa in the next round, and Eissa took control of the match in straight sets. She won the opening set, 6-3, before producing an even stronger second set to close out Devaul, 6-1.
That victory created an all-Maryland semifinal between Eissa and Mulready. Mulready had put together an excellent tournament of her own, opening with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Lehigh’s Lena Dogadalski before beating Navy’s Peyton Amspacher-Philemon by the identical 6-1, 6-2 score in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal proved to be Eissa’s toughest test of the weekend. Eissa took a tight opening set, 7-6, before Mulready answered by winning the second set in another tiebreak, 7-6. That sent the match to a deciding match tiebreak, where Eissa prevailed 10-3 to earn her place in the championship.
Eissa dominates championship match
After surviving the semifinal battle, Eissa left little doubt in the Flight A final.
Gu had put together a strong run through Navy’s home tournament, defeating George Mason’s Marianna Pirmatova and Mary Washington’s Addison Felts in straight sets before getting past Morgan State’s Michaela Stephens in three sets. That sent Gu into the championship match against Eissa.
Eissa controlled the final from beginning to end. She defeated Gu, 6-1, 6-1, completing an undefeated singles weekend and securing the Flight A championship.
The title was particularly significant because it represented Eissa’s first fall singles tournament victory. She finished the weekend having beaten opponents from George Mason, Lehigh, Maryland and Navy while dropping only one set across her four matches.
Her performance also came one week after Eissa competed at the Debbie Southern Furman Fall Classic. The Moore Invitational was Maryland’s second fall tournament of the 2026 season.
Mulready makes a run to the semifinals
Eissa was not Maryland’s only player to produce a strong singles showing in Annapolis.
Mulready cruised through her first two matches, surrendering only six total games over four sets against Dogadalski and Amspacher-Philemon. Her run ended only because she encountered Eissa in the semifinals, and even then Mulready pushed the eventual champion through two tiebreak sets and into the deciding match tiebreak.
Hung also opened the tournament with a victory. She battled Delaware State’s Celia Torrelles Aguila through three sets, winning 7-5, 4-6, 10-3. Morgan State’s Stephens eliminated Hung in the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Donnelly dropped her opening Flight A singles match to Mary Washington’s Felts, 7-5, 6-1, but responded in the consolation bracket. Donnelly defeated George Mason’s Mariana Pirmatova, 6-4, 6-2, before falling to Lehigh’s Maggie Forkner, 6-1, 6-4, in the consolation semifinals.
Those performances contributed to Maryland’s 8-3 combined singles record for the tournament.
Terps add two doubles victories
Maryland also entered two teams in the Flight A doubles competition.
Hung and Eissa teamed together and opened with a 6-4 quarterfinal victory against George Mason’s Brooklyn Sigel and Pirmatova. Their championship-bracket run ended in the semifinals when Mary Washington’s Felts and Natalie Kim defeated the Maryland pair, 6-3.
Mulready and Donnelly lost their opening doubles match to Lehigh’s Alina Shyani and Forkner, 6-2. The Terps bounced back in the consolation bracket, however, defeating George Mason’s Mary Young and Rotaru, 7-5.
Maryland consequently finished 2-2 in doubles and 10-5 overall across singles and doubles matches during the event.
Productive start to Maryland’s fall season
The Annapolis tournament was part of a busy stretch for Maryland women’s tennis. While Eissa, Hung, Mulready and Donnelly competed at Navy, another group of Terps traveled to Cary, North Carolina, for the ITA All-American Championships.
Maryland entered the week with six players scheduled for the ITA event: Anastasiia Sorska, Magdalena Baniak, Oliwia Orlinska, Emma Ghirardato, Ema Kovacevic and Diya Challa. Ghirardato entered the event ranked No. 96 nationally in ITA singles, while Orlinska was ranked No. 71.
The Terps’ fall schedule continues into October and November with several major events still ahead. Maryland is scheduled for the Charlotte Invite from Oct. 2-4, followed by the W35 Las Vegas event and ITA Regionals later in October. ITA Sectionals, the UNF Fall Invite and the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship are scheduled for November.
For Eissa, however, the trip to Annapolis already provided an early highlight.
Four singles matches produced four victories. She survived the weekend’s most competitive match against her own teammate in the semifinals and then turned around and produced her most decisive performance with a championship on the line.
MSB Take
Aida Eissa could not have asked for much more from her weekend in Annapolis. Going undefeated is impressive by itself, but Eissa showed several different ways to win on her path to the Flight A championship.
She handled Devaul in straight sets, survived an extremely competitive match against Mulready and then overwhelmed a Navy player on the Midshipmen’s home courts in the final. Winning the championship match 6-1, 6-1 after playing such a demanding semifinal made the finish even more impressive.
Maryland also has plenty beyond Eissa’s championship to build on. Mulready reached the semifinals and pushed Eissa to a deciding tiebreak, Hung earned a singles victory in her first tournament of the fall, and Donnelly responded to an opening-round defeat with a consolation victory. The Terps also picked up wins with both of their doubles combinations.
Fall tournaments are largely about development, finding productive combinations and preparing players for the dual-match season. Maryland accomplished plenty of that in Annapolis, but Eissa came away with something more tangible — a Flight A championship and her first fall singles tournament title.
