Vianna Ce, Cruise advance to finals at MVC Individual Championships
10/10/2009 | 12:00:00 | Women's Tennis
Oct. 10, 2009
By Michael Benson
www.SIUSalukis.com
Evansville, Ind. - Martina Vianna Ce and Michela Cruise advanced to the finals in their respective flights after day two of competition at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships in Evansville, Ind.
In addition, the doubles pair of Emily Whitney and Cruise also advanced to the finals in doubles play, marking the second straight tournament the duo has done so.
Vianna Ce moved on to the finals in Flight #6 with relative ease, as the senior blew past Drake's Amanda Aragon in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. She will face off with Evansville's Carolyn Caire tomorrow for the flight title.
For Cruise, she also advanced with relative ease, cruising past Jessica Labarte of Drake 6-3, 6-1. The junior will face off with Arianne Maack of Illinois State for the Flight #5 title.
For doubles, Whitney and Cruise defeated Drake's duo of Jessica Aguilera and Aragon, 8-3, to move on to the doubles Flight #3 finals. From there, the SIU pair will face Carmen Peters and Hannah Esker of Illinois State tomorrow.
In other action, three Salukis recovered from semifinal losses to capture third place in their respective flights.
In Flight #1, Whitney was bested by Drake's Manca Krizman in the semifinals 6-3, 6-0, but recovered by prevailing over Anika Kiss of Illinois State 6-4, 6-7(3), 10-4.
Flight #2 saw Vishakha Sheoran fall to Lenore Lazaroiu of Wichita State 6-0, 6-4. However, Sheoran came from behind to capture third place with a win over Illinois State's Julia Zubkova 4-6, 6-2 10-8.
Meanwhile, Flight #4 saw Jessica Flannery fall to Jessica Kunzelmann of Norhtern Iowa 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. Yet, the senior captured third place with a win over Drake's Aguilera 6-3, 6-1.
In the other matches of the day, freshman Jennifer Dien captured fourth place in Flight #3 after losing to Natalia Lech of Illinois State in the semifinals 6-1, 6-0, then fell to Alexandra Patterson of Drake 6-4, 5-7, 10-4. In doubles, Sheoran and Vianna Ce def. Manca Krizman and Gabriela Demos of Drake, 9-7, and UNI's Sampada Kanade and Jessica Kunzelmann defeated Dien and Flannery, 8-0.
"We are excited to have two singles and one doubles teams playing in the finals tomorrow," head coach Audra Nothwehr said. "I was also proud of our singles players - Jessica, Vishakha, and Emily - who bounced back after close semifinal loses to win their next matches for third place."
Players Mentioned
