Another winning day for the Valparaiso University women’s tennis team was highlighted by a pair of individuals advancing to championship matches in their respective singles flights and one doubles team punching its ticket to Sunday’s final. Sophomore Jelena Vujanic (Elk Grove Village, Ill. / Elk Grove) and junior Jordan Kopfer (Eagan, Minn. / Eastview) will play for conference titles on Sunday, while the doubles pairing of freshman Olivia Paradise (Mahtomedia, Minn. / Mahtomedi) and senior Randi Wind (Park Ridge, Ill. / Maine South) also finds itself one victory away from championship hardware.

How It Happened

• Vujanic will make a championship-match appearance in the MVC Individual Championship for the second consecutive season. After she reached the Flight 2 final as a freshman a year ago, Vujanic will compete with Bradley’s Sandra Maletin for the Flight 1 title on Sunday. The Valpo sophomore won a close first set over Illinois State’s Tara Damnjanovic 7-5 before pulling away for a 6-1 win in Set 2 to complete the semifinal sweep on Saturday.
• Kopfer bounced back after losing the first set 3-6 to Olivia Fain of UNI to prevail 6-2, 6-4 in the remaining sets, cementing her spot in the Flight 7 final on Sunday.
• Paradise and Wind continued their run of success in Flight 2 doubles, advancing with a tightly-contested 7-5 win over Haleas/Walczak, who play for defending regular season conference champion Drake. Paradise/Wind will face Ribeiro/Bekirova of Stony Brook on Sunday.
• Sophomore Claire Czerwonka (Kenosha, Wis. / Saint Joseph Catholic Academy) picked up her second straight win in Flight 2, beating UNI’s Claudia Toledo in a pair of close sets 6-4, 7-5 in the fifth-place match.
• Freshman Isabella Schoolcraft (Bargersvile, Ind. / Center Grove) dropped her semifinal match in Flight 6 singles on Saturday, but will play in a third-place match against Drake’s Megan Webb on Sunday. Valpo’s Flight 1 doubles pairing of Vujanic and Czerwonka will also play for third on Sunday after a semifinal setback. The sophomore classmates will oppose Petushkova/Palumbo of Drake.

Inside the Matches

• Vujanic now stands at 7-1 this season and has 26 career wins.
• Kopfer is still undefeated at 7-0 on the season and has won 17 matches in her career.
• The freshman/senior pairing of Paradise and Wind picked up their third win together. Wind has won 18 career doubles matches.  
• Czerwonka finished 2-1 in the tournament in singles to move her record to 6-3. She hit the 20-win milestone for her career on Saturday.

Up Next

Three championship matches will highlight an active Sunday slate as Valpo will be well represented on the final day of the MVC Individual Championship in Springfield, Mo.