March 5, 2010
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State women's tennis team concludes a six-match homestand and opens Horizon League play when the Vikings host Youngstown State on Sunday, March 7, at 2:00 p.m. at River Oaks Racquet Club.
The Vikings enter the match with a 5-6 mark, while YSU is 1-6 following Friday's 7-0 win over IUPUI.
"We are looking at the YSU match as a must-win match even though there is a long way to go in this season," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "Our goal is to finish in the top-three in the league and to do that, beating YSU will be very helpful. We split two matches with them last year, beating them in the regular season and falling to them in the league tournament. So we will be out to avenge that loss and get the league schedule started out right."
Both matches last year finished 4-3.
The team went 1-2 in its three matches last weekend, falling 5-2 to both Toledo and Bowling Green and defeating Oakland, 7-0.
Sophomore Catrine Bjerrehus led the Vikings, going 2-1 in singles and a perfect 3-0 in doubles to earn Horizon League Player of the Week honors.
Freshman Maria Lazaris earned a hard-fought, come from behind win against Toledo. After losing the first set, 6-1, Lazaris battled back to win the final two sets. In addition, freshman Mengdi Liu, who became eligible just before the weekend, picked up her first career doubles with (No. 3 with Sanda Bjelan) against Bowling Green and won her first career singles match against Oakland.
"Mengdi has been fighting very hard to get back in the court and in our lineup and it was nice to see her get a few wins last weekend," Etzkin said. "She has the ability to win some matches for us this spring and help solidify the bottom part of our lineup."
No player on the team may be playing better right now than Sanda Bjelan, who has won seven of her last 10 matches to improve to 11-10 this season, tying her with Lazaris for most wins on the team.
"Sanda is playing with more and more confidence each time she takes the court," Etzkin said. "She has been very strong mentally and never loses focus when she is on the court."
Bjelan, who ranks fourth on the all-time singles wins list in school history, is one win shy of 60 for her career. She is currently 59-32 for her career.
After the YSU match, CSU heads back on the road to play three matches over Spring Break, beginning with an 11:00 a.m. match against St. Louis in Lawrence, Kan., on Sunday (March 14). The Vikings will square off with Kansas the following day at 12:00 p.m. before heading to Iowa State for a match on Wednesday (March 17).
