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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Saturday Tennis Roundup
April 25, 2009 | Women's Tennis
April 25, 2009
PERRYSBURG, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Top-seeded Miami University won Saturday's (April 25) first semifinal match at the 2009 Mid-American Conference Women's Tennis Championships, posting a 5-0 victory over the fifth-seeded University of Toledo. Saturday's matches are being held at the Perrysburg Tennis Center due to high winds in the Bowling Green area.
The RedHawks took the doubles point, then won the first four singles matches that finished. Two matches wrapped up almost simultaneously, which was the reason for the 5-0 final score. Matches normally are halted when one team reached four points.
Hours later, third-seeded Western Michigan University outlasted the second-seeded University at Buffalo, 4-3, in an epic match that ended at 7:06 p.m. Eastern Time. The match came down to the sixth-flight singles match, where Yumi Matsuto defeated Anna Subenkova in a marathon.
The RedHawks and Broncos will meet to decide the league tournament champion on Sunday (April 26) at 1:00 p.m.
#1 MIAMI 5, #5 TOLEDO 0
Miami jumped out to quick leads across the board Saturday morning, then survived several Toledo rallies in a 4-0 victory over the Rockets. The win was the 11th straight for the 75th-ranked RedHawks.
With the victory, Miami is now 15-6 in dual-match play this season. Toledo ends the season with a 14-10 record.
MU won the doubles point for the 12th time in the last 13 matches. Anastasia Dracheva and Monica Gorny got things started at the second flight with their 13th-straight win. They were broken in the first game, but won the next eight for an 8-1 triumph.
Stephanie Danesis and Megan Martzolf secured a 1-0 lead with an 8-2 win at the top flight. They won the first two games against Toledo's Martina Wodzinski and Maha Guirguis, but dropped back-to-back games before rallying. The RedHawks' number-three team of Riekie Honiball and Brintney Larson were on the verge of victory, leading, 7-3, and tied 30-30 in their current game when play was halted.
Gorny put Miami up 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-0 whitewashing of Wodzinski at the top singles flight, in a match that lasted just 41 minutes. The RedHawks continued to pound away at the Rockets, winning the opening set in four of the other five matches, before seeing the Rockets narrow the gap.
UT's Guirguis won the second set at the second flight, 6-1, marking the first time MU's Dracheva was forced to a third set in 13 matches. A winner of 12 singles matches in a row, Dracheva had taken the first set, 6-2, but lost that second set, and was trailing Guirguis by a 2-1 count in the third set when the match was stopped.
At the sixth flight, UT's Jessica Azoulay downed Honiball in the first set, and had a 4-3 lead in the second set before that match was abandoned.
The RedHawks got a win from Larson at the fifth flight, however, to go up by a 3-0 count in the match. Larson dropped only three total games in a win over Jenny Belsky.
In fourth-flight action, Martzolf sent the RedHawks into Sunday's championship match with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Zoubareva. Just seconds later,
Danesis completed a 6-3, 6-4 victory at the third flight, making the final score 5-0. The decision was allowed to stand as the final point was in progress when Martzolf's match came to an end.
MIAMI 5, TOLEDO 0
Saturday, April 25 - Perrysburg Tennis Center - Perrysburg, Ohio
MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS - SEMIFINAL
SINGLES
1 - Monia Gorny (MU) def. Martina Wodzinski 6-0, 6-0
2 - Maha Guirguis (UT) led Anastasia Dracheva 2-6, 6-1, 2-1, abandoned
3 - Stephanie Danesis (MU) def. Ashley Frey 6-3, 6-4
4 - Megan Martzolf (MU) def. Nadia Zoubareva 7-5, 6-1
5 - Brintney Larson (MU) def. Jenny Belsky 6-2, 6-1
6 - Jessica Azoulay (UT) led Riekie Honiball 6-2, 3-4, abandoned
Doubles
1 - Danesis/Martzolf (MU) def. Wodzinski/Guirguis 8-2
2 - Gorney/Dracheva (MU) def. Zoubareva/Belsky 8-1
3 - Larson/Honiball (MU) led Frey/Melissa Reynolds 7-3, abandoned
ORDER OF FINISH
DOUBLES - 2,1 (3 abandoned)
SINGLES - 1,5,4,3 (2,6 abandoned)
#3 WESTERN MICHIGAN 4, #2 BUFFALO 3
After two-straight defeats to Buffalo, Western Michigan knocked off the Bulls in heartbreaking fashion Saturday afternoon/evening, 4-3. In a match that lasted over five hours from the start of doubles to the conclusion of singles play, the Broncos pulled out the victory to advance to face Miami in Sunday's final.
With the win, the Broncos improve to 21-7 in dual matches this year. Western advances to the league tourney championship match for the fourth consecutive season. UB bows out of the MAC Championships with a dual-match record of 14-6.
Buffalo had defeated Western in the 2008 MAC Championships final, as well as in the teams' 2009 regular-season meeting, both by 4-3 scores, before WMU turned the tables on the Bulls with Saturday's win.
The Broncos took the doubles point, with Jenny Nalepa and Ashley Moccia winning an 8-3 decision over Smaranda Stan and Diana Toia at the third flight, and Emily Dudzik and Yumi Matsuto getting past Denise Harijanto and Diana Popescu, 8-6, in first-flight action. At the second flight, UB's Aleksandra Petrova and Anna Subenkova were deadlocked with WMU's Kerstin Pahl and Amanda Moccia, 4-4, when the match was halted.
The teams then proceeded to lock horns in a number of epic battles in singles play, with each team winding up winning three singles matches. The first singles match to come to an end was the fourth-flight contest, where Maria Nivia got Western's second point with a straight-sets victory over Toia.
Buffalo, however, would storm back to take a 3-2 lead in the match, winning at each of the top-three flights. The number-one flight saw Harijanto surge past Pahl in straight sets. After a 6-4 win in the opening set, Harijanto did not lose a single game in her second set.
Prior to Harijanto's top-flight win, Popescu had come up victorious at the second flight, defeating Nalepa by identical 6-3 scores. When Stan bounded back from a first-set loss for a three-set win over Ashley Moccia at the third flight, the Bulls were in the lead.
The matches at the fifth and sixth flights still remained on the court, and both were far from finishing up. At the fifth level, Petrova had downed Amanda Moccia, 6-4, in the opening set, only to see Moccia rally for a 6-3 win in the second set. In the third set, Petrova won four of the first five games, but Moccia would win five-straight games to take the match. The teams were tied, 3-3, with just the sixth-flight match remaining.
In that contest, Matsuto had won a 6-4 decision in the first set, and her lengthy second-set battle with Subenkova would come down to a tiebreaker, with the Bulls' junior winning that 'break by a 7-3 result.
In the epic third set, neither player could pull away, but Matsuto forged a 5-3 lead to put herself just a game away from victory. Subenkova won the next game to narrow the gap, but Matsuto went ahead in the following game, and served for the match on two occasions. Subenkova, however, rose to the challenge, winning the game to tie the set at five games apiece.
But, Matsuto held serve to go up, 6-5, then picked up a service break to send the Broncos into the finals.
Sunday's final will begin at 1:00 p.m. That match will be held at either Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus, or at the Perrysburg Tennis Center, depending upon wind and weather conditions.
WESTERN MICHIGAN 4, BUFFALO 3
Saturday, April 25 - Perrysburg Tennis Center - Perrysburg, Ohio
MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS - SEMIFINAL
SINGLES
1 - Denise Harijanto (UB) def. Kerstin Pahl 6-4, 6-0
2 - Diana Popescu (UB) def. Jenny Nalepa 6-3, 6-3
3 - Smaranda Stan (UB) def. Ashley Moccia 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
4 - Maria Nivia (WMU) def. Diana Toia 6-3, 6-2
5 - Amanda Moccia (WMU) def. Aleksandra Petrova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
6 - Yumi Matsuto (WMU) def. Anna Subenkova 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-5
Doubles
1 - Matsuto/Emily Dudzik (WMU) def. Harijanto/Popescu 8-6
2 - Subenkova/Petrova (UB) vs. Pahl/Am. Moccia (WMU) 4-4, abandoned
3 - Nalepa/Ash. Moccia (WMU) def. Stan/Toia 8-3
ORDER OF FINISH
DOUBLES - 3,1 (2 abandoned)
SINGLES - 4,2,1,3,5,6
(portions of this story courtesy of the Buffalo, Miami and Western Michigan athletic communications offices)
