Falcons Lose a Heartbreaker at UIC, 4-3

Saturday, April 9

Chicago, Ill.

11:00 AM CT

Bowling Green State University

UIC

Freshman Nikki Chiricosta

April 09, 2011 | Women's Tennis

By: CHICAGO, Ill. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Host UIC lost the doubles point, but won four of the six singles matches to rally back for a 4-3 victory over the Bowling Green State University tennis team Saturday morning/afternoon (April 9) in Chicago.

With the win, the Flames improve to 13-4 on the season. The Falcons drop to 11-7 in dual-match play.

BGSU began the day by winning the doubles point against the perennial Horizon League champions. The third-flight match saw freshman Nikki Chiricosta and sophomore Mary Hill pick up an 8-3 win over the Flames' duo of Ilinca Cristescu and Jana Knoppe.

The hosts won an 8-5 decision at the second flight, as Teona Tsertsvadze and Elisa Simonetti outlasted BG freshman Emily Reuland and sophomore Jade Johnson. The doubles point came down to the top flight, and senior Christine Chiricosta teamed up with soph Maddy Eccleston to win in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (3), over Mariya Kovaleva and Linda Hricistova.

In singles play, Tsertsvadze downed Eccleston in the second flight, but Nikki Chiricosta picked up a win in two close sets against Cristescu at the third flight. Both sets in the latter match ended with a score -f 7-5.

Christine Chiricosta, the winningest player in BGSU history, defeated Kovaleva in three sets at the top flight. Chiricosta picked up a 6-4 victory in the opening set, but Kovaleva, the Horizon League Player of the Year in each of her first two seasons with the Flames, won the second set to force a third. In that third set, however, Chiricosta pulled out a 6-3 victory.

The Flames, however, won at each of the bottom three flights, with all three of those matches requiring three sets. In all three matches, BG won the opening set before UIC rallied back.

Knoppe gutted out a victory over Reuland at the fifth flight, winning by a 6-3 final in the third set. At flight number six, Hricistova defeated junior co-captain Jessica Easdale. All three sets in the sixth-flight match ended with a 6-4 score.

Hricistova's win tied the match at 3-3, and Simonetti picked up a victory over Hill at the fourth flight to give her team the dual-match victory. Simonetti lost a close first set (7-5), then won an even closer second set. The middle set of that match went to a tiebreaker before Simonetti pulled out a 10-8 win. She went on to win the third set, 6-2.

BGSU returns home for a pair of matches next weekend. The Falcons will face Eastern Michigan on Friday (April 15) and Toledo Saturday (April 16), with each match scheduled to get underway at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus.

UIC 4, BOWLING GREEN 3
Saturday, April 9, 2011 - Chicago, Ill.
SINGLES
1 - Christine Chiricosta (BGSU) def. Mariya Kovaleva 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
2 - Teona Tsertsvadze (UIC) def. Maddy Eccleston 6-3, 6-3
3 - Nikki Chiricosta (BGSU) def. Ilinca Cristescu 7-5, 7-5
4 - Elisa Simonetti (UIC) def. Mary Hill 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-2
5 - Jana Knoppe (UIC) def. Emily Reuland 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
6 - Linda Hricistova (UIC) def. Jessica Easdale 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 4

DOUBLES
1 - C.Chiricosta/Eccleston (BGSU) def. Kovaleva/Hricistova 9-8 (3)
2 - Tsertsvadze/Simonetti (UIC) def. Reuland/Jade Johnson 8-5
3 - N.Chiricosta/Hill (BGSU) def. Cristescu/Knoppe 8-3
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1

NOTES
* The Chiricosta sisters continued their climb up the BGSU single-season wins list ... freshman Nikki Chiricosta now has a total of 47 victories this season, tying her for fourth in school history ... senior Christine Chiricosta has 45 wins on the year, deadlocking her for seventh on that BGSU list ... Devon Bissinger holds the school record, having recorded a total of 59 wins in 1998-99.

* Sophomores Mary Hill and Maddy Eccleston have 43 and 42 total wins, respectively, this season ... both players rank in the top 15 on the BG single-season list.

* Nikki Chiricosta now has 25 singles wins, the fourth-highest seasonal total in Falcon history ... Abby Bratton holds that record, with 30 singles victories in the 1998-99 season ... Christine Chiricosta has 22 singles wins this year to date, tying her personal best and deadlocking her for 13th on that school chart.

* Christine Chiricosta, the school record-holder on all three career wins lists, now has 86 singles victories and 87 doubles wins for a total of 173 victories as a Falcon ... 42 of her 87 doubles wins has come with Eccleston as her partner.