Saturday, April 21, 2012

Valparaiso saw the 2011-2012 women’s tennis season come to an end on Saturday morning with a 7-0 loss to UIC at the Flames Outdoor Courts in Chicago, Ill.

UIC (15-3, 8-0 Horizon) opened the match sweeping the three doubles points.  Stephanie York (Elkhart, Ind./Jimtown H.S.) and Kaitlyn Hamel (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain H.S.) played the tightest match at the second spot, falling 8-3 against Elisa Simonetti and Teona Tsertsvadze.  Haley Craig and Mariya Kovaleva downed Megan Barthels (Grand Rapids, Mich./Catholic Central H.S.) and Kristin Zakiewicz (Bristol, Ind./Northridge H.S.). 8-2 at number one while Jana Knoppe and Kathryn Sharples were 8-0 victors over Brittany O’Reilly (Green Bay, Wis./Southwest H.S.) and Angelina Goheen (Aurora, Ill./Rosary H.S.).

In singles action the Flames surrendered just six total games in sweeping the six matches.  Kovaleva was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Bartels at one while Tsertsvadze downed Hamel 6-1, 6-1 at second singles.  Craig defeated York by the same score at the third spot while Simonetti was a 6-1, 6-0 victor over Zakiewicz at four.  Fifth singles saw Knoppe top O’Reilly 6-0, 6-0 while Sharples downed Goheen by that same score at six.

Valparaiso’s season closed with a 4-14 record overall and a 0-8 mark in Horizon League play and marked the end of York’s career as a Crusader. She is the Brown and Gold’s lone senior this season.