The Valparaiso University women’s tennis team’s progress from a year ago was on display throughout the fall season, and this weekend’s Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championship in Normal, Ill. provided the perfect culmination to the fall campaign. A strong showing concluded with Valpo’s No. 2 doubles team picking up a win in the fifth-place match on Monday, the event’s final day.  

How It Happened

• Sophomore Dao Sysouvanh (Sun Prairie, Wis. / Sun Prairie) and freshman Claire Czerwonka (Kenosha, Wis. / Saint Joseph Catholic Academy) enjoyed a tightly-contested victory for the second consecutive day. The duo prevailed 8-7(8-6) in the fifth-place match of Flight 2 Doubles, getting the best of Illinois State’s Jana Kustkova and Ivon Mihaleva to nail down their second straight win.
• Freshman Jelena Vujanic (Elk Grove Village, Ill. / Elk Grove) represented Valpo in the Flight 2 Singles championship match, coming up shy against Drake’s Summer Brills on Monday. Brills took the final showdown in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
• The other Valpo players in action on Monday were sophomore Jordan Kopfer (Eagan, Minn. / Eastview) and junior Meg Modesto (Chesterton, Ind. / Chesterton), who were in the third-place match in Flight 3 Doubles. They fell to Illinois State’s Valerija Gercar and Laura Fitzgerald 8-4.

Inside the Match

• Vujanic’s loss was her first of the season as she had dropped just one set through her first six matches of the year. Despite missing a weekend of singles play due to illness, Vujanic is even with fellow freshman Czerwonka for the team lead with six singles wins.
• Sysouvanh and Czerwonka improved to 5-5 as a doubles tandem this year with their victory on Monday.
• As a team, the Crusaders have had a winning fall, as they own a combined singles record of 32-30 (.516) this season.

Up Next

The next match on the schedule is the opener of the spring season as the Crusaders head to IUPUI for a dual match on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m. CT.