April 14, 2012
Contact: Renee Adam
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CHICAGO, Ill. - The Cleveland State women's tennis team had its five-match win streak snapped Saturday afternoon, falling at league-leading UIC, 5-2. The loss is just the eighth of the year for the Vikings and the first in Horizon League play as their record falls to 12-8 (4-1).
"We were really close in today's match, there were times that I thought we were going to be the team to topple the powerhouse that is UIC," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "I feel like we had really good chances at beating them today, we just need to play a little better all around. We were able to get a good look at them for the tournament if we play them again and hopefully the result will be the other way around if that happens."
After dropping the doubles point, Cleveland State was only able to claim two singles wins against the Flames (12-3, 5-0), who are now the only undefeated team in league play. The No. 1 doubles team of Catrine Bjerrehus and Maria Lazaris claimed CSU's lone doubles victory of the day, earning an 8-5 win at No. 1 doubles.
Kara Sherwood and Alex Power picked up CSU's singles wins, notching victories at No. 3 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Sherwood claimed a 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 win over UIC's Haley Craig marking her fourth straight singles win and improving her record to 11-9 this spring. Power posted her sixth straight singles win with a 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2) decision over Kathryn Sharples, also marking her fifth league victory this year, improving her record to 5-0.
"Kara played well today with the superbreaker win," Etzkin said. "She hit her backhand very well and hit it for some offense which she has not done lately. Alex Power also played some clutch tennis today, winning two tiebreakers that she had in her match."
The Vikings will close out their final regular season road swing tomorrow, as they take on Valparaiso at 12:00 p.m. EST.
UIC 5, Cleveland State 2
Doubles:
1. Bjerrehus/Lazaris (CSU) def. Kovaleva/Craig (UIC), 8-5
2. Tsertsvadze/Simonetti (UIC) def. Bush/Power (CSU), 8-5
3. Sharples/Hricistova (UIC) def. Janek/Sherwood (CSU), 9-7
Singles:
1. KOVALEVA, Mariva (UIC) def. Bjerrehus, Catrine (CSU) 6-1, 2-6, 10-8
2. TSERTSVADZE, Teona (UIC) def. Lazaris, Maria (CSU) 6-3, 6-3
3. Sherwood, Kara (CSU) def. CRAIG, Haley (UIC) 6-4, 4-6, 10-5
4. SIMONETTI, Elisa (UIC) def. Bush, Alexandra (CSU) 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
5. KNOPPE, Jana (UIC) def. Janek, Nicole (CSU) 6-2, 6-2
6. Power, Alex (CSU) def. SHARPLES, Kathryn (UIC) 7-6, 7-6
Exhibition Match: Linda Hricistova (UIC) def. Mengdi Liu (CSU), 6-0
