2014 Tennis Championships Day 2 Results | 2014 Horizon League Tennis Championship Brackets
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—On a beautiful day in Michigan, the Horizon League Tennis Championship semifinal rounds took place on the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center. No. 1 seed Cleveland State advanced to the women’s final for the first time since 2012 and No. 3 seed Youngstown State returns to the Sunday slot for the second-straight year. The Green Bay men’s team remained undefeated against conference opponents this season to return to the finals for the fourth-straight year for a rematch of last year’s title match against reigning champion No. 2 seed Cleveland State.
The women’s championship final will be contested at 11:00 a.m. ET while the men’s championship final will follow with a 3:00 p.m. ET start time. The finals will be streamed live on the Horizon League Network.
No. 1 Cleveland State 4, No. 5 Detroit 1
Cleveland State took the courts for the first time of the Championship after receiving a bye to take on Detroit in a rematch of a close 4-3 Viking victory earlier in the season.
Cleveland State took the doubles point with wins from the No. 1 duo of Alex Power and Ellen Folkers over Detroit’s Victoria Laskutova and Nino Sujashvili 8-4 and the No. 2 victory from Kara Sherwood and Mathilde Orange against Irina Slizovskaya and Julia Fernandes 8-7. Detroit’s Valeriya Kulikovskaya and Anna Davydova picked up the sole doubles win for the Titans defeating Alex Bush and Princess Gbadamosi 8-2 at No. 3.
In singles play, the Vikings collected the next two match points with straight-set wins from No. 1 Lauren Golick over Laskutova 6-1, 6-1 while teammate Sherwood won at No. 3 against Kulikovskaya 6-2, 6-2. Detroit fought back garnering a point from Slizovskaya at No. 2 versus Bush 6-4, 6-1 but fell short of a comeback when Victoria Bensimon clinched the match point for the Vikings against Fernandes with a straight-set victory 6-1, 7-5.
The matchups of Cleveland State’s Orange versus Sujashvili at No. 4 and Detroit’s Davydova against Gdabamosi at No. 5 each went unfinished.
No. 3 Youngstown State 4, No. 2 Milwaukee 3
In the most nail-biting match of the day, Milwaukee mounted a comeback after going down 3-1 to Youngstown State. With a spot in the finals match on the line, it all came down to the No. 1 singles contest of Margarita Sadovnikova and Diana Tokar to clinch the final point.
The Penguins took the doubles point with quick wins by Marta Burak and Dominika Lackova over Hayley Marshall and Aerielle Pendleton 8-3 at No. 1 while Sadovnikova and Carolyn Jesko defeated Christina Colarossi and Kristin Kurer 8-4 at No. 3. The match-up of the Penguins’ Annina Brendel and Nehel Sahni versus Alysa Straub and Diana Tokar went unfinished.
Kurer started off singles play with a straight-set win over Youngstown State’s Jesko 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6 to put Milwaukee on the board. Youngstown State collected the next two points with victories from Burak over Marshall 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 and at No. 3 Lackova defeated Chelseas Bailey 6-2, 6-3. The Panthers kept their comeback alive as Colarossi picked up a win over Brendel 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4 and Straub defeated Sahni after going down the first set 1-6 to win the next two 6-2, 6-3 at No. 5.
With the match on the line, Sadovnikova went three sets with Milwaukee’s Tokar at No. 1 after falling 6-4 in the first and winning the second 7-5. Sadovnikova closed the second set with two-straight game points and carried that momentum in the third to win 6-0. The victory clinched the match for the Penguins and advanced them to the Horizon League Championship final for the second-straight year.
No. 1 Green Bay 4, No. 4 Valparaiso 0
In a battle of youth versus experience, the Green Bay men’s team would prove to be too much to handle for Valparaiso shutting out the Crusaders 4-0 to advance to the Horizon League Championship final for the fourth-straight year.
The undefeated Phoenix outlasted Valparaiso in doubles play, picking up wins from Michael Tenzer and Howard Scott at No. 1 against Dave Bacalla and Daniel Oakes 8-3 and at No. 3 with the pairing of Rowan Isaaks and Leopold Gomez Islinger defeating Eric Honert and Kyle Dunn 8-5. The dynamic freshmen deo of Jeffrey Schorscho and Charlie Emhardt won the sole double match for the Crusaders at No. 2 against Michael Tebon and Joey Leto 8-3.
Straight-sets was all the Phoenix needed to capture three-straight singles points to take the match over Valparaiso. Leto picked up the first singles point with a win over Michael Savaglio at No. 4 6-2, 6-2 while Tenzer followed close behind with a point of his own at No. 1 taking on Schorsch 6-3, 6-2. However, it was Scott at No. 3 over Honert 6-4, 6-3 that clinched the match for Green Bay.
The No. 2 match of Bacalla versus Islinger, No. 5 contest of Emhardt and Isaaks and No. 6 pairing of Dunn and Gonzalez Soler all went unfinished.
No. 2 Cleveland State 4, No. 6 Youngstown State 2
After an upset victory over Wright State last night, Youngstown State’s road to the Championship final ended in the hands of No. 2 seed Cleveland State. The Vikings won the match 4-2 and look to defend their 2013 Championship tomorrow afternoon.
Cleveland State collected the doubles point to take an early lead winning at No. 1 with the duo of Ali Shabib and Joe VanMeter over Sebastian Hagn and Dawood Kabli 8-1 and at No. 2 with teammates Matt Kuelker and Nolan Marks against Max Schmerin and Rodrigo Campos 8-5. Zeeshan Ismail and Silvio Mistreanu won 8-7 in a close match taking on Jorg van der Vloet and Manuel Bellutti to pick up Youngstown State’s sole doubles win.
The Penguins evened up the match in singles at No. 6 when Campos captured a straight-set victory over Marks 6-3, 7-6. The Vikings then took the point at No. 5 when Bellutti beat Schmerin 6-2, 6-3. To even up the score at 2-2 apiece, Hagn defeated Shabib 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 for the Penguins but Cleveland State quickly took back its lead when Kuelker outlasted Mistreanu 6-3, 6-4 in a steller matchup at No. 1. VanMeter would seal the victory for Cleveland State at No. 4 defeating Ismail 6-4, 6-4 while the No. 3 match of van der Vloet versus Kabli went unfinished.
The Horizon League Championship Finals take place tomorrow with No. 3 Youngstown State taking on No. 1 Cleveland State in the women’s final at 11:00 a.m. ET. The men’s final of No. 1 Green Bay and No. 2 Cleveland State get started at 3:00 p.m. ET. Matches will be contested at the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. and will be streamed live on the Horizon League Network.
