April 15, 2011
Contact: Greg Murphy
BOARDMAN, Ohio - Cleveland State moved one step closer to securing a top-two seed in next week's Horizon League Championship as the Vikings won at Youngstown State, 6-1, on Friday night.
The win moves the Vikings to .500 overall this season at 11-11 and keeps CSU in second place in the Horizon League at 6-1.
"This was a good team win for us tonight and kept us on pace to achieve our goal of finishing in the top two of the league regular season standings," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We talked about coming out focused tonight and I thought the girls did a good job of doing that. We got off to a great start in doubles and really carried that momentum through the entire match.
"We have another big league match tomorrow against Detroit to close out the regular season and we are going to have to bring this same kind of energy, intensity and focus to that match."
Junior Catrine Bjerrehus and sophomore Maria Lazaris breezed to an 8-1 win at No. 2 doubles, while sophomore Mengdi Liu and freshman Kara Sherwood earned an 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
The freshmen duo of Alex Bush and Alex Power continued their stellar play at No. 1 doubles, improving to 12-6 this year with an 8-6 win.
CSU then took five of the six singles contests, winning from the No. 2 through the No. 6 positions to pick with their 14th league win in the last 16 regular season contests.
The Vikings close the regular season out with a 3:00 p.m. match against Detroit on Saturday (April 16) at the Paramount Tennis Club in Westlake. A win would secure the No. 2 seed in next week's Horizon League Championship and equal the Vikings best league record in program history (7-1), which would be shared with last year's squad.
Cleveland State 6, Youngstown State 1
Apr 15, 2011 at Boardman, Ohio
Singles competition
1. SADOVNIKOVA, M. (YSU) def. Bjerrehus, Catrine (CSU) 6-1, 6-0
2. BUSH, Alex (CSU) def. JESKO, Carolyn (YSU) 6-1, 6-1
3. Sherwood, Kara (CSU) def. PUPPO, Gimena (YSU) 6-0, 6-2
4. Lazaris, Maria (CSU) def. SJOKVIST, Karolina (YSU) 6-1, 6-2
5. Power, Alex (CSU) def. PATTEN, Hannah (YSU) 6-0, 6-0
6. Liu, Mengdi (CSU) def. JESKO, Annie (YSU) 6-0, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. BUSH, Alex/POWER, Alex (CSU) def. SADOVNIKOVA, M./SJOKVIST, Karolina (YSU) 8-6
2. BJERREHUS, Catrine/LAZARIS, Maria (CSU) def. PATTEN, Hannah/PUPPO, Gimena (YSU) 8-1
3. LIU, Mengdi/SHERWOOD, Kara (CSU) def. JESKO, Carolyn/JESKO, Annie (YSU) 8-3
