Creighton University
Wichita State
Women's Tennis Falls to Shockers in Valley Tourney Quarters
4/24/2009 6:45:00 PM | Women's Tennis
OMAHA, Neb. -- A valiant effort by the Creighton women's tennis team wasn't enough as the Bluejays dropped a 4-0 decision to league champion Wichita State in quarterfinal round action of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Touranment, being held at Koch Family Tennis Center in Omaha.
The loss ends one of Creighton's strongest tennis seasons with a 14-10 record, including a modern-record 10-match winning streak in March. Wichita State improves to 19-5 on the season and will play No. 4 seed Illinois State (14-9) on Saturday at 11 am in its quest for a third Valley tournament title in the past four years.
"It was a successful season for us," said CU head coach Tom Lilly. "We're a young team and don't lose anyone to graduation, so I look forward to next year."
Despite one of its best doubles efforts of the season, Creighton was unable to take the doubles point from a potent Wichita State line-up that cleaned up during last night's all-conference banquet. WSU's No. 3 tandem of Anna Egorova and Laryssa Ferreira downed Creighton's Kelsey Schmidt and Lauren Mastro by a 8-2 score. The No. 2 pairing saw Shockers Lenore Lazaroiu and Torrie Browning get past Leesa Cadwallader and Sarah Cadwallader in 8-5 fashion, securing the doubles point.
One match that went unfinished but provided high drama was at No. 1 doubles, where CU's Tess Reddin and Nicole Nakaoka nearly topped the all-Valley duet of Florentina Hanisch and Stephanie Dalmacio. CU served for the set at 7-6 but were broken. The score was deadocked at 7-7 when the doubles competition ended, thwarting a potential upset for CU's top doubles pair.
In singles play, Lazaroiu defeated Schmidt, 6-2 and 6-3, at No. 4 to give the Shockers a 2-0 lead in the match. Not long after that the visitors took the No. 5 singles point with Hanisch's 6-1, 6-1 victory over Bluejay freshman Mary Pat McMullan. The Shockers went on to clinch the victory with an identical 6-1, 6-1 triumph by Dalmacio, who topped Nakaoka.
Three other matches did not get completed. At No. 1 singles, CU's Reddin overcame a 6-3 first-set loss to Egorova to build a 4-0 second-set lead. At No. 2 singles, Browning was up on Mastro 6-4 and 1-0. In addition, Ferreira had a 6-1, 5-2 lead over CU's Lindsey Erickson at No. 6 singles before play was discontinued.
"We got off to a rough start today in doubles against Bradley," said Lilly. "I like how we responded after losing that point. It fired us up in singles and we beat a quality MVC team in Bradley.
"Then, being the only team to play a second match of the day, we had to play the No. 1 seed. I thought we held our own. We played well in doubles and singles and competed well not only today but the whole year."
Semifinal round action of the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament is scheduled to begin at 11 am on Saturday at Koch Family Tennis Center. In the event of inclement weather, the matches would be moved inside to Hanscom Indoor Tennis Center.
Players Mentioned
