March 13, 2012
Contact: Renee Adam
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Cleveland State women's tennis team opened up their spring training trip Tuesday afternoon, as they fell at Embry-Riddle, 6-3. Tuesday's match was played in the nine-point format, where each doubles match counts for one point. The Vikings slip to 7-6 on the year, while the Eagles, who rank third in the NAIA standings improve to 8-1.
"With the nine-point format that we played today it put a little more pressure on our doubles teams, making every point count," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "I think it was good experience for us to be under that pressure, especially moving into the league portion of our schedule. Embry-Riddle is a very good team and I'm glad that we played a tough match against them today."
Nicole Janek and Maria Lazaris paired up for Cleveland State's lone doubles victory at Embry-Riddle, claiming an 8-5 win at No. 3 doubles. Janek and Lazaris have recorded four doubles victories over the past five matches, the most wins by a CSU tandem during that time frame.
After gaining a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches, Embry-Riddle was able to extend their lead to 6-2 until the final two singles matches of the day. The Vikings were able to pick up two singles victories against the Eagles, with Janek claiming a win at No. 5 singles and Mengdi Liu earning a win at the No. 6 spot.
"The bottom part of our singles lineup was definitely the most competitive for us today, including Nicole and Mengdi who picked up wins for us," Etzkin said. "Nicole had a great first set and was able to put it away in the third set. She was really controlling the points and controlling play during the entire match which was great to see."
Janek cruised to a 6-2 victory during the first set, and after dropping the second set was able to come back and pick up a 7-5 win during the final frame. Liu followed the same path, as she earned a 7-6 (4) win during the opening set, fell 6-1 in the second and claimed a 10-7 super tie breaker for the match. With the victory, Liu extended her singles win streak to three straight.
"Mengdi played a great first set and after going down in the third set was able to come back and get us the point," Etzkin said. "I thought we had a great chance to win multiple singles matches today, but we just weren't able to pull them out. We are looking forward to getting back on the court tomorrow and facing a strong Florida Atlantic team."
Cleveland State returns to action tomorrow (Wednesday, March 14) as they travel to Florida Atlantic for a 2:00 p.m. match.
Embry-Riddle 6, CSU 3
Doubles:
1. Chen/Strom (ERU) def. Bjerrehus/Power (CSU), 8-1
2. Frej/Kamendova (ERU) def. Sherwood/Liu (CSU), 8-4
3. Lazaris/Janek (CSU) def. Marova/Montero (ERU), 8-5
Singles:
1. CHING CHEN, Yi (ERU) def. Bjerrehus, Catrine (CSU) 6-0, 6-1
2. FREJ VITALLE, Rocio (ERU) def. Lazaris, Maria (CSU) 6-2, 6-0
3. KAMENDOVA, Ekaterina (ERU) def. Sherwood, Kara (CSU) 6-1, 6-4
4. MAROVA, Kristina (ERU) def. Power, Alex (CSU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
5. Janek, Nicole (CSU) def. STROM, Josefine (ERU) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
6. Liu, Mengdi (CSU) def. MONTERO, Paola (ERU) 7-6 (4), 1-6, 10-7
