Sept. 9, 2007
Contact: Brian McCann
PEORIA, Ill. -- Freshman Sanda Bjelon outdueled Eastern Illinois' Abby Allgire to claim third place in the "B" Singles Flight and the doubles team of Jenn Myers and Christine Vogelgesang finished second in their flight as Cleveland State competed a good first weekend of play at the Bradley Fall Invitational.
Freshman Melissa Holzinger was slated to play for third place in the "A" Singles Flight but was forced to withdraw from her Sunday match because of illness and settled for a fourth place showing.
"This was a pretty good weekend for us," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We spent most of our time in practice the last two weeks determining our lineup so now we can go home and get our doubles lineup straightened around and have more structured practices that will allow us to maximize our performance.
"The final day was a good one. Sanda (Bjelon) has gotten better and better since she came to CSU a couple of weeks ago and her performance this weekend shows that she is capable of replacing Sarah Galon in the lineup.
"It was also good to see Jackie Tabb pick up her first collegiate victory because she lost a couple of tough matches playing in the "A" flight this weekend.
"We faced some pretty good competition this weekend and our performance is definitely one that we can build on."
Doubles play started the final day of the tourney and CSU dropped all three contests to finish the weekend with a 2-6 doubles mark.
Bjelon's singles performance proved to be the match of the day for the Vikings as she dominated her Eastern Illinois opponent en route to a 6-4, 6-2 win.
With CSU's Denisa Muntean and Melissa Holzinger forced to withdraw from their "A" Singles matches because of illness, freshman Jackie Tabb closed her first weekend of collegiate play by dominating Milwaukee's Kari Kastenholz, 6-2, 6-3 to claim her first collegiate victory.
The Vikings will continue their fall schedule this weekend when they play at the Bowling Green Invitational. The three-day tourney runs from Friday (Sept. 14) through Sunday (Sept. 16).
Sunday's Results
"A" Flight Singles
Nicole Miller (Bradley) def. Denisa Muntean (CSU), default
Melissa Holzinger (CSU) withdrew (4th place)
Jackie Tabb (CSU) def. Kari Kastenholz (UWM), 6-2, 6-3
"B" Flight Singles
Sanda Bjelon (CSU) def. Abby Allgire (EIU), 6-4, 6-2
Dora Delgadillo (NIU) def. Jenn Myers (CSU), 6-1, 6-3
Stephanie Okuma (NIU) def. Lindsay Sellers (CSU), 7-5, 6-2
"C" Flight Singles
Jenna Felsher (UWM) def. Christine Vogelgesang (CSU), 7-5, 6-3
"A" Flight Doubles
Jessica Buterbaugh/Kelly Donohue (Bradley) def. Holzinger/Sellers (CSU), 8-5
"B" Flight Doubles
Tabb/Bjelon (CSU) def. Peggy Moore/Ameena Paynes (Chicago State), 8-3
"C" Flight Doubles
Friedlund/Brink (NIU) def. Myers/Vogelgesang (CSU), 8-1