Valparaiso University women’s tennis team competed in Day 1 of the Bronco Invitational at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Friday. The Crusaders enjoyed five wins on the day, two in singles and three in doubles.

How It Happened

• Sophomore Meg Modesto (Chesterton, Ind. / Chesterton) earned her second win of the season, getting the better of Green Bay’s Tallie Piaskowski in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. Modesto advances to the second round of the Brown Flight.
• Senior Morgan Paras (Indianapolis, Ind. / Bishop Chatard) grabbed her second singles win of the young campaign. She topped Lewis’s Megan Conlin 6-2, 6-3 in the Silver Flight.
• The first two rounds of doubles competition took place on Friday. Sophomore Randi Wind (Park Ridge, Ill. / Maine South) and freshman Dao Sysouvanh (Sun Prairie, Wis. / Sun Prairie) notched their first win as a doubles pair, beating Green Bay’s Samm Pedersen and Chiara Berg 6-2 in the first round.
• Wind and Sysouvanh then competed in the second round of the doubles bracket and suffered a 6-3 setback to Western Michigan’s Denise Azcui and Katja Fevralev.
• Kathleen Hebble (Sellersburg, Ind. / Silver Creek) and Paige Heuer (Munster, Ind. / Munster) picked up a 6-2 win over Oakland's Sofia Borcuti and Amanda Nilsson 6-2. Hebble and Heuer had dropped their first-round match against Chicago State earlier in the day. 
• In round robin doubles, Erin Staal (Grand Haven, Mich. / Grand Haven) and Morgan Paras (Indianapolis, Ind. / Bishop Chatard) picked up a consolation bracket win over Green Bay's Tallie Piaskowski and Theresa Tebon 7-5. The victory allowed Staal and Paras to rebound from a loss to Lewis earlier in the day.
• Freshman Jordan Kopfer (Eagan, Minn. / Eastview) came out of the gate in favorable fashion with a 6-0 win in Set 1, but then dropped the remaining sets 6-2, 10-5.
• Hebble  was on the losing end of a 6-1, 6-3 singles match with Oakland’s Daria Artamonova.
• Heuer fell to IUPUI’s Sara Sherif 6-1, 6-2.
• Sysouvanh ran into Fevralev in the first round of the Black Flight. Sysouvanh lost 6-0 in Set 1, then kept it tight in a 7-5 defeat in Set 2.
• Wind dropped her singles match to Green Bay’s Theresa Tebon 6-2, 6-4 in the Silver Flight.
• Valpo’s other doubles tandem was Modesto and Kopfer, who lost 6-1 to Western Michigan’s Tracy Kuhle and Melina Lyubomirova in the first round. Modesto and Kopfer also lost in the doubles consolation bracket to Artamonova and Alexandra Whall of Oakland.
• In round robin singles, Staal was defeated by Green Bay’s Maria Neff 6-0, 6-3.
• The host Broncos dominated the day, going a perfect 16-0 on the invitational’s initial day.

Next Up

The Bronco Invite continues on Saturday with another full day of competition. Two Crusaders will try to remain in the championship bracket as Meg Modesto faces Western Michigan’s Meika Ashby and Morgan Paras clashes with Chicago State’s Lorea Gamboa. A number of other Valpo players will compete in consolation brackets.