INDIANAPOLIS -- Valparaiso sophomore Jeffrey Schorsch (Perrysburg, Ohio) is the Men’s Tennis Player of the Week while Youngstown State senior Marta Burak (Lviv, Ukraine) is the Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for the week of April 14-20. This is the fourth weekly honor that Burak has received this season and second for Schorsch.
Valparaiso closed out its conference season this past weekend with matches against Cleveland State and Youngstown State. On Saturday, the Crusaders fell to the Vikings in a close 4-3 match. The squad won the doubles point early in the contest but was only able to pick up two for the six singles points. The following day versus Youngstown State, Valparaiso claimed the No. 2 seed of the Horizon League Championship with a 6-1 victory.
Schorsch was solid for the Crusaders throughout the entire weekend winning each of his matches at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles with teammate Charlie Emhardt. Facing the Vikings, he defeated Joe VanMeter in straight-sets 6-2, 6-2. In doubles competition, the duo won 6-1 against Cleveland State. On Sunday at Youngstown State, the sophomore once again won his singles match in straight-sets over Remi Chancerel 6-2, 6-4. With Emhardt, the pair won 6-3 to close out their regular season doubles campaign.
The defending Horizon League Tournament Champions, Youngstown State, notched the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s Championship with two wins over the weekend. The Penguins remained flawless in conference competition with a win against UIC on Saturday 4-3 following by a victory over Valparaiso on Sunday 6-1. This is the first time in school history that the Youngstown State women’s team has gone a perfect 8-0 throughout the Horizon League regular season.
For the second-straight week, Burak was solid on the courts for the Penguins. The senior picked up two straight-set wins at No. 1 singles in addition to a win at No. 1 doubles with Julianna Heino 6-4. Throughout Burak’s career, she has posted a 30-1 conference record and has now won 25-straight matches. In addition to her Horizon League dominance, Burak has also garnered 92 match wins in her career at Youngstown State which stands as an ongoing record.
Valparaiso and Youngstown State will compete in the Horizon League Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships Thursday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26 at the Purdue University Schwartz Tennis Center. The teams both received byes in the first round and will begin competition on Friday.
Top Men’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Patryk Koscielski, Detroit (So.): Posted a team-high 12th win of the year with a straight-set victory at No. 1 singles against IUPUI.
Silviu Mistreanu, Youngstown State (Sr.): Picked up two victories at No. 3 and No. 4 singles in his final regular season matches for the Penguins. Over his four years at Youngstown State, the senior has captured 54 victories.
Jorg van der Vloet, Cleveland State (Sr.): Went 2-0 at No. 2 singles and 2-0 at No. 3 doubles over the weekend against Valparaiso and UIC. Became the eighth Viking all-time to notch 60 career singles wins.
Top Women’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Princess Gbadamosi, Cleveland State (So.): Went 2-0 at No. 5 singles and 1-0 at No. 3 doubles facing Valparaiso and UIC.
Sasha Nionova, Detroit (Fr.): Moved to 6-2 in the Horizon League this season at No. 1 singles with a straight-set victory against Oakland.
