Valparaiso's Schorsch and Milwaukee's Tokar Collect Horizon League Tennis Weekly Honor

INDIANAPOLIS –Valparaiso freshman Jeffrey Schorsch (Perrysburg, Ohio) is the Horizon League men’s tennis Player of the Week, while Milwaukee freshman Diana Tokar (Kiev, Ukraine) is the Horizon League women’s tennis Player of the Week for the week of March 3-9.

The Valparaiso men’s tennis team competed in Orlando, Fla. over the weekend to take on Niagara, Robert Morris and St. Cloud State. The squad collected three victories with a 5-2 win over Niagara and swept Robert Morris and St. Cloud State 7-0 respectively. The Crusaders are now 10-3 overall going into mid-week competition.

Schorsch tied Valparaiso’s all-time record for singles victories in a season with 20. Currently, he has won nine singles matches in a row and went undefeated in all three matches this past weekend. Against Niagara at No. 1 singles, Schorsch defeated David Raymond 6-0, 7-6 (7-2). In doubles play with teammate Charlie Emhardt at No. 2 doubles, the duo won 8-3. In the victory over Robert Morris, Schorsch won his No. 1 singles match in straight-sets 6-0, 6-0 and paired up with Emhardt at No. 1 doubles to win 8-2. In the second match on Sunday taking on St. Cloud State, Schorsch tied the Crusader record with singles season victories in a 6-0, 6-2 win against Joao Poli. He then capped off his weekend efforts to collect another No. 1 doubles win with Emhardt.

The Milwaukee women’s team tallied two victories in weekend play over conference-foe Green Bay and Western Illinois. The squad beat the Phoenix 7-0 and collected another 7-0 sweep taking on Western Illinois the following day.

Tokar went undefeated at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles in the two Panther victories. Against Green Bay, she defeated Stephanie Londre 6-2, 6-2. In doubles with teammate Alysa Straub, the pair shutout the duo of Londre and Claudia Negron 8-0. Tokar continued to dominate on the court the next day against Western Illinois with a straight-set singles win over Jenna Wallace 6-0, 6-0. The pair of Tokar and Straub collected their second shutout win of the weekend defeating Wallace and Nicole Jones 8-0.

The Crusader men continue their spring trip in Orlando with three matches this week against Monmouth, Creighton and Quinnipiac. The Panther women take the road for two matches with the first at Northern Iowa and second at Illinois State.

Top Men’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Matt Kuelker, Cleveland State (Sr.)—Picked up a win at No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles against Abilene Christian. Leads the team with a 17-8 singles record this year and is 10-2 in action this spring.

Top Women’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Jana Knoppe, UIC (Sr.)— Won her seventh-consecutive singles match and 10th of the season while improving to 7-1 at No. 4 singles. She leads UIC in wins this season with 10 singles victories and five doubles victories.
Kara Sherwood, Cleveland State (Sr.)—Went 2-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles over the weekend against Abilene Christian and McMurry. She now ranks sixth all-time at Cleveland State with 65 career singles wins.

Men’s Tennis Player of the Week:
Jan. 20: Silviu Mistreanu, Youngstown State
Jan. 27: Jorg van der Vloet, Cleveland State
Feb. 3: Ali Shabib, Cleveland State
Feb. 10: Leopold Gomez Islinger, Green Bay
Feb. 17: Jeffrey Schorsch, Valparaiso
Feb. 24: Matt Kuelker, Cleveland State
March 3: Jeffrey Schorsch, Valparaiso

Women’s Tennis Player of the Week:
Jan. 13: Lauren Smith, Wright State
Jan. 20: Nino Sujashvili, Detroit
Jan. 27: Jana Knoppe, UIC
Feb. 3: Margarita Sadovnikova, Youngstown State
Feb. 10: Annina Brendel, Youngstown State
Feb. 17: Dominika Lackova, Youngstown State
Feb. 24: Alex Bush, Cleveland State
March 3: Diana Tokar, Milwaukee