April 28, 2007

Contact: Josh Rattray

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - UIC avenged its loss to Cleveland State in the regular season finale last week with a 4-2 win over the Vikings in Saturday's semifinals of the Horizon League Championship. CSU, seeded second in the tournament, will face No. 4 Wright State in the third place match Sunday at 9:00 a.m.

The third-seeded Flames, who Cleveland State had defeated 5-2 just six days earlier, captured an early lead by winning the doubles point, which set the tone for the entire match.

"We had most of our success this year when we won the doubles point," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We had opportunities to win, leading in two doubles matches, but we couldn't get it done."

Down 1-0 heading into singles play, CSU answered when freshman Phil Orno and sophomore Rob West each won quick matches. However, the Flames won in the fourth and six spots to take a 3-2 lead before Bastian Harbo won a close three-set match over junior Brad Groleski for the clinching point.

The No. 2 seeding for Cleveland State (17-8) was the best in school history. The Vikings finished third in last year's Horizon League Championship.

Semifinals

UIC 4, CSU 2

DOUBLES RESULTS

No 1. Lystad/Lockhart (UIC) def. Orno/Hamning          8-5

No 2. Liccardo/Harbo (UIC) def. West/Wipprecht         8-6

No 3. Groleski/Singer & Sweeney/Fey DNF

SINGLES RESULTS

No. 1 Phil Orno def. Sebastian Lystad (UIC)                 6-3, 6-2

No 2. Bastian Harbo (UIC) def. Brad Groleski               6-2, 4-6, 6-3

No 3. Ryan Hamning & Adriano Liccardo (UIC)            DNF

No 4. Eric Fey (UIC) def. Dan Singer                               6-1, 6-3

No 5. Rob West def. Sam Sweeney (UIC)                      6-1, 6-1

No 6. Andy Lockhart (UIC) def. Steven Wipprecht         6-2, 6-2