Aces are one of eight teams participating
Eight teams will make their way to Wesselman Park beginning on Saturday as the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Women’s Tennis Championships will be hosted by the University of Evansville.
Admission is free all three days and play will begin at 9 a.m. each morning. The action begins on Saturday with #1-3 doubles and #1-7 singles. Doubles winners advance to the semifinals on Sunday while singles winners will also move on to the semis. First round losers will play their first round backdraw on the first day. Sunday doubles features backdraw and semifinals while singles will consists of semis and the 5th place match.
“We are very excited to host the MVC Individual Tournament this year. With all eight MVC teams competing in individual flights of Singles and Doubles and no team scoring, this event has a little different feel than the spring team championships; its a rare chance for all the teams to see the new players on each roster and to gain a measure of where they stack up with the rest of the conference at this early stage of the season,†UE head coach Jayson Wiseman said.
On Monday, the championship doubles matches will commence the action before singles championship and third place matches will be held. Aside from the Purple Aces, other MVC teams participating include: Bradley, Drake, Illinois State, Missouri State, UNI, Southern Illinois and Wichita State.
“It is a special opportunity for us, especially with such a young team, to get to play this event on our home courts and in front of our fans. Hosting our own invitational this past weekend hopefully allowed our players to work out any jitters they may have had so that now we can focus on putting together some successful performances against our conference opponents,†Wiseman continued. “It’s going to be a great weekend of tennis and we are hopeful that large number of tennis enthusiast from around the Evansville area as well as Aces Tennis fans can make it out and support our team and the event.â€
Over the weekend, the Aces co-hosted the Evansville Metro Collegiate Invitational. Highlighting the weekend was a singles championship at #2 singles for Diana Tkachenko. After opening with the win over Bellarmine’s Jennifer Skonieczny (6-1, 6-2), Tkachenko defeated UT Martin’s Asel Jumamukhambetova, 6-4, 6-0. In the finals, Tkachenko took down Adreanna Christopoulou of Western Kentucky, 6-4, 6-3.
In #4 singles, Andrea Pascual Larrinaga came home in third place. She opened up with the win over Ana Albertson of Austin Peay, 3-6, 7-5, 10-8. After falling to Jemima Potter (UTM), she faced Donna Haycock of North Alabama, taking the win, 7-5, 6-3.
Chieko Yamada played in the top flight and defeated Lindsay Whitehead of Belmont, 6-4, 6-1, to open up play. After falling to Sarah Candeloro of UT Martin, Yamada came in 4th place after dropping her match against WKU’s Elpide Malamou, 6-1, 6-1.
Doubles action saw Tkachenko and Nicoli Pereira earn a 7-6 (3) win over North Alabama in the opening round before falling to Belmont (7-5). In the third place match, Austin Peay defeated them by a 6-3 final. In the second flight, Theodora Soldatou teamed up with Yamada , falling to Belmont by a 6-2 final in the opening round. They defeated Austin Peay by a 6-2 final before falling to Western Kentuck
