The Valparaiso University women’s tennis team cruised to straight-set victories on all six singles courts after earning the doubles point for the first time this season en route to a 7-0 whitewash of visiting Wayne State on Sunday afternoon at The Courts of Northwest Indiana.

How It Happened

• After Valpo’s No. 3 doubles team of Demi Jhaveri (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) and Allison McConnell (Westland, Mich. / Churchill) earned a 6-3 victory in the first doubles match to finish, the Brown & Gold needed one of the remaining matches to secure the point.
• Both of those matches were tightly contested, but Claire and Olivia Czerwonka (Kenosha, Wis. / Saint Joseph Catholic Academy) closed out a 7-5 win at the top doubles position. The No. 2 match featuring Amanda Tabanera (Valencia, Calif. / Valencia) and Isabella Schoolcraft (Bargersville, Ind. / Center Grove) went unfinished and was deadlocked at 6-6 before play was halted.  
• Tabanera made quick work of her opponent at No. 3 singles, downing Melanie Zampardo 6-0, 6-3 in the first singles match to finish. Jhaveri and Olivia were not far behind, with Jhaveri securing a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 6 before Olivia clinched the team victory by putting the finishing touches on her 6-0, 6-4 win over Suki Mandair at No. 2.
• Claire also wasted no time in her match, dispatching Linda Liong 6-2, 6-3.
• The last two matches remaining needed slightly longer to reach the finish line, but featured equally encouraging results from a Valpo standpoint. Schoolcraft topped Sabrina Laynes 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5, before the last match of the day concluded with Mia Bertino (Lockport, Ill. / Joliet Catholic) winning 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4.

Inside the Match

• McConnell, a freshman who joined the Valpo doubles lineup for the first time this weekend, earned her first collegiate win in doubles or singles by virtue of the No. 3 doubles victory.
• The Czerwonka sisters made it a weekend sweep at No. 1 dubs, earning their fourth win as a pair this season and seventh overall as a college tandem. Claire notched her 44^th career doubles win, eighth in program history and now just two away from a tie for sixth. Olivia picked up her 17^th career doubles success as just a sophomore.
• Valpo won the doubles point for the first time this season, marking the squad’s first doubles point since March 4, 2020 vs. both Hampton and Grand Valley State, the final day of competition prior to the COVID-19 shutdown.
• Claire corralled the 40^th singles win of her collegiate career, the ninth-most in program history. She needs five more to jump into a tie for eighth in career singles wins.
• Claire’s victory came over a member of the 2019-20 First-Team All-GLIAC squad who finished the 2019-20 season ranked 14^th in singles in the Midwest Region. Liong was also a GLIAC Second Team choice in 2018-19.
• Tabanera, Jhaveri, Olivia and Claire all share the team lead in singles wins this season with three apiece. Claire and Olivia lead the way in doubles wins with four.
• The 7-0 victory marked Valpo’s first such triumph since a pair of 7-0 routs during fall matches in 2019. Sunday accounted for the program’s first win of 7-0 or better in spring competition since beating Chaminade University of Honolulu 9-0 on March 12, 2018 (a match that was played with doubles as separate decisions).

Up Next 

With a stretch of eight straight home matches in the books, Valpo (2-7) will visit Northern Illinois on Saturday, March 6 at noon at Chick Evans Field House in DeKalb, Ill.