Oct. 19, 2003
CLEVELAND - The men's and women's tennis teams fell to IPFW by identical 4-3 scores on Sunday at the Malaga Tennis Center, ending the fall team season for both squads. With the losses, the men drop to 1-2 for the fall, while the women end the fall with a 1-3 mark.
"This wasn't the way we had planned on this day going," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We're beginning to get a little bit of a rivalry with IPFW, and the 4-3 losses to them really sting a bit right now."
The women's team got wins from the top three spots in the lineup, as Sarah Galon, Morgan Ungerott and Rebekah Bicksler each picked up a singles win. Galon defeated Francesca Solari, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at No. 1 singles, while Ungerott picked up her first collegiate singles win at No. 2, defeating Michelle Humphrey, 6-0, 6-3. Bicksler beat Jill Carie, 6-4, 6-4, to put the Vikings on the brink of their second win of the season.
But CSU dropped the three singles matches at the bottom of the lineup, with Paulina Reyes coming closest to a win, falling to Lisa Bartelheim, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 4 singles. With the singles points even at three for each team, the doubles point was the decisive point, with IPFW winning at No. 2 and No. 3 to give them the win.
"We came out firing, but just couldn't finish them off," Etzkin said. "We got great play out of the first half of our lineup, but couldn't close them out."
The Viking men had the exact opposite problem, as they began by winning the doubles point. Jay Tee and Eric Winn knocked off Michael Parker and Daniel Jackson at No. 1, 8-6, and Dan Singer and Paul Haley clinched the point at No. 2, defeating Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Orr, 8-2. But the Vikings managed just two singles wins at the bottom of the order, as IPFW took the match by winning four of the six singles points.
Brett Aronson and Paul Haley claimed the singles wins for the Vikings, with Aronson beating Jessy Nikho at No. 4 singles, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Haley defeating Jackson, 6-2, 6-2, in No. 5 singles.
Tee and Winn each had a chance to win the match for CSU, but failed to finish off their opponents. Tee won the first set, 6-4, but then dropped the next two, 7-5, 7-6 (5), while Winn also dropped the second and third sets, 6-4, 6-2, after winning 6-2 in the opener.
"Last year when we played IPFW, we swept the top three singles points, but couldn't get a win below No. 3," Etzkin said. "We thought we had it won after we won the doubles point and had a couple of first set wins, but we didn't close it out, and we didn't get any help from the top of our lineup."
Both the men and the women have completed the fall team season, though four players will compete at next weekend's ITA Midwest Regionals in Michigan. Sarah Galon will play in the singles draw and will team with Morgan Ungerott in the doubles draw, in Kalamazoo, Mich., while Jay Tee and Eric Winn will both play in the singles draw and will team up in the doubles draw in East Lansing, Mich. Both tournaments will begin on Thursday.
