CLEVELAND, Ohio – The magic of Banquet Weekend continued Sunday afternoon, as the Cleveland State women's tennis team defeated league-leader Milwaukee, 4-3. With the win, the Vikings improve to 9-11 overall and 5-1 in Horizon League play, while Sunday's match also marked the first league loss for the Panthers.
"This was another awesome college tennis match, the women really had to dig deep and win without the doubles point and that showed a lot of toughness in this group," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "Once again the crowd support was great, giving us a definite home court advantage. There was a lot of positive Viking Energy going around and you could see it affected all of the players on the court."
After dropping the doubles point, the Vikings rebounded and won four out of the six singles matches. The first point came from Kara Sherwood at No. 3 singles, marking her ninth win out of her last 10 singles matches. Sherwood earned a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win to put the score at 2-1 UWM after the Panthers also picked up a win at No. 6 singles.
Alex Bush then evened the score at 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-1 victory at No. 2 singles, but shortly after the Panthers regained a 3-2 lead with a win at the No. 5 spot.
"Despite dropping the doubles point, they really didn't let that bother them, especially Kara who was in control of her match the entire time and picked up a quick point for us. Alex Bush had a little doubt in her eyes early on, but she kept moving and hitting good shots and raised her level of play throughout the match picking up another point for us," Etzkin said.
The Vikings were then able to even the score once again with a victory from Lauren Golick at the top of the lineup, making the No. 4 match between CSU's Mathilde Orange and Milwaukee's Christina Colarossi the deciding point.
Golick, who along with Sherwood has a team-best 5-1 mark in league matches, came from behind to earn a three-set victory at No. 1 singles. Golick dropped the first set 6-1, and was then down 4-1 in the second set before storming back to win the second and third sets by matching scores of 6-4.
"Lauren had a huge come from behind win today – this was definitely her signature win of the season," Etzkin said. "She made a strategy adjustment after dropping the first set and was able to pull out the three-set victory. I saw some great fight out of Lauren today, and hopefully this momentum continues throughout the remainder of the season."
With all of the attention now on the No. 4 singles court, Orange battled for the clinching point, earning a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) victory, improving CSU's record against the Panthers to 11-1 over the past 12 seasons.
"To see Mathilde close it out the way she did, was awesome. Even though she is only a sophomore, she played like a senior today and handled the pressure situations well. It was great to see her rip that last ball to win the match. Over the past week she has lifted her game and I am really proud of how she competed today and never gave up," Etzkin said.
The Vikings will close out the regular season next weekend, traveling to UIC (Friday, April 18) and Valparaiso (Sunday, April 19) for a pair of crucial contests.
Cleveland State 4, Milwaukee 3
Doubles:
- Ellen Folkers/Alex Power (CSU) def. Hayley Marshall/Aerielle Pendleton (UWM), 8-2
- Alysa Straub/Diana Tokar (UWM) def. Alex Bush/Princess Gbadamosi (CSU), 8-3
- Christina Colarossi/Kristin Kurer (UWM) def. Kara Sherwood/Victoria Bensimon (CSU), 8-5
Singles:
- Lauren Golick (CSU) def. Diana Tokar (UWM), 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
- Alex Bush (CSU) def. Hayley Marshall (UWM), 6-4, 6-1
- Kara Sherwood (CSU) def. Chelsea Bailey (UWM), 6-2, 6-3
- Mathilde Orange (CSU) def. Christina Colarossi (UWM), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5)
- Alysa Straub (UWM) def. Princess Gbadamosi (CSU), 6-4, 2-6, 6-0
- Kristin Kurer (UWM) def. Alex Power (CSU), 6-1, 6-1
