Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Valparaiso opened the outdoor portion of the home schedule on an extremely windy Wednesday afternoon at the Valpo Tennis Complex, dropping a 6-1 match to Indiana Wesleyan.

The Wildcats opened the match winning all three doubles contests for the day’s first point.  Valpo’s Stephanie York (Elkhart, Ind./Jimtown H.S.) and Katie Bilyeu (Terre Haute, Ind./South Vigo H.S.) played the tightest match of the day at the number three spot, before falling 8-3 to  Laura Helm and Courtney Kooyers.  Indiana Wesleyan’s Eva Delk and Lisa Massey were 8-0 victors over Molly Keifer (Richmond, Ind./Richmond H.S.) and Jenny Schwartz (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora H.S.) while Cailtin McGuire and Julia Hedgebeth topped Kim Sajevic (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury H.S.) and Julie Wingstrom (Dallas Lake, Ind./Westview H.S.) by the same score at the second spot.

Singles play was tightly contested.  Sajevic earned a straight set victory for the Brown and Gold at the number one spot with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Julia Hedgebeth.  Indiana Wesleyan (16-0) won the other five matches, but three of them went three sets, with Valpo winning the first set in each of the contests.  Delk topped Schwartz 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 at third singles while Kooyers was a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 winner against York at the fifth spot.  Helm earned a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Lindsey Gustafson (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) at the bottom of the order for the other three-set win.  Massey was a 6-3, 6-4 victor against Keifer at second singles while McGuire topped Bilyeu 6-2, 6-3 at the fourth spot.

“It was great for Kim to get a win at first singles,” head coach Traci Young said.  “We had some good three set matches today as well.”

Valparaiso (1-13) will remain at home on Friday as the Crusaders host Milwaukee at the Valpo Tennis Complex.  First serve is set for 4 p.m.