Olivia and Claire Czerwonka (Kenosha, Wis. / Saint Joseph Catholic Academy) teamed up for a doubles victory and both prevailed in singles competition, but the Valparaiso University tennis team was edged 5-2 by visiting SIUE in an extremely tightly-played match on Saturday afternoon at The Courts of Northwest Indiana. The majority of the matches came down to the wire and featured closely-contested sets.

How It Happened

• The Czerwonka sisters did not drop a single game in their No. 1 doubles match against Thibault-Lambrechts, cruising to a 6-0 victory.
• The other two doubles matches were both cliffhangers that saw SIUE squeak out 6-4 wins to take the doubles point.
• The top two singles matches were the first to finish as Claire dispatched Lambrechts 6-4, 6-0 at No. 2 before Olivia put the finishing touches on a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 1.
• Junior Demi Jhaveri (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) may have dropped her No. 4 match, but she did so in a pair of extraordinarily close sets. Jhaveri lost Set 1 on a marathon tiebreak 7-6 (15-13) and Set 2 by a 6-4 count.
• In their No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches, Mia Bertino (Lockport, Ill. / Joliet Catholic) and Isabella Schoolcraft (Bargersville, Ind. / Center Grove) both got out to early leads after capturing 6-1 wins in Set 1. However, both players lost tightly-contested second sets and eventually dropped their matches in three.
• The final match in action was at No. 3, where Amanda Tabanera (Valencia, Calif. / Valencia) also grabbed the opening set before incurring a tightly-played 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 setback.
• Five of the six Valpo singles players won their opening set, and the only Set 1 loss was on a 15-13 tiebreak as the Beacons got off to a solid start to singles play. However, the Cougars rallied to nip the hosts and hand them their first setback of the season.

Inside the Match

• Claire picked up her 61^st career doubles win, while Olivia achieved her 34^th. Olivia is two away from cracking the program’s all-time top 10, while Claire already owns the program record.
• Olivia earned her 38^th career singles win, moving into the program’s all-time top 10. She is now part of a three-way tie for 10^th in program history in career singles victories, joining Charmaine Stanislaw (2002-2006) and Kim Sajevic (2005-2009).
• Claire also advanced on Valpo’s all-time singles wins list, as the victory was her 49^th. She is now tied with Jill Dierberg (2002-2006) for seventh in program history and needs just one more to reach the 50-win threshold.
• Olivia’s singles victory came over Jordan Schifano, a member of the All-Ohio Valley Conference second team last season.

Up Next

Valpo (3-1) will close out a stretch of three straight home dates to begin the spring season on Saturday, Jan. 29 vs. Saint Louis at 3 p.m. at The Courts of NWI.