Saturday, March 26, 2011

Valparaiso continued Horizon League action on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 7-0 match against Detroit at Homewood-Flossmoor Racquet Club in Homewood, Ill.

The Titans opened the match winning all three doubles contests.  Amanda Cornwell and Carolina Salas Espinoza were 8-0 victors over Katie Bilyeu (Terre Haute, Ind./South Vigo H.S.) and Kristin Zakiewicz (Bristol, Ind./Northridge H.S.) at the top spot while Elena Strakhova and Raina Halabi were 8-1 winners over Stephanie York (Elkhart, Ind./Jimtown H.S.) and Jackie O’Reilly (Green Bay, Wis./DePere H.S.) at the second spot.  Erin Weldon and Julia Fernandes topped Brittany O’Reilly (Green Bay, Wis./Southwest H.S.) and Aubree Zdanovec (Appleton, Wis./East H.S.) 8-2 at third doubles.

Detroit (1-13, 1-2 Horizon) won five of the six singles matches in straight sets.  Espinosa was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Jackie O’Reilly at number one singles while Cornwell downed Brittany O’Reilly 6-0, 6-1 at the second spot.  Strakhova was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Zakiewicz at third singles.  York forced a match tie-break at number four, winning the opening set before falling 3-6, 6-1, 10-1 against Halabi.  At fifth singles, Fernandes was a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Bilyeu while Weldon defeated Zdanovec 6-1, 6-0 at number six.

Valparaiso (0-10, 0-3) will head to Ohio next weekend for a pair of matches, beginning on Saturday.  The Crusaders will face Cleveland State beginning at 8 a.m. CDT.