Eastern Michigan Athletics
Tennis to Face Golden Gophers and Grizzlies
2/14/2008 3:24:42 PM | Tennis
Eagles hit the road for two matches
HIT THE ROAD JACK: The Eastern Michigan University women’s tennis team will look to bounce back after two straight losses as they travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for two of six remaining road matches. The Eagles will take on the University of Montana on Saturday at 1 p.m. and will then face the No. 54 ranked University of Minnesota.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GOPHERS AND GRIZ: The Eagles face tough competition this weekend as they take on the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota and the Grizzlies of the University of Montanta.
The Gophers come in on a two match winning spree with an overall record of 5-1. Their latest win came on the road in a 5-2 decision versus Iowa State. They are also ranked 54th in the latest Intercollegiate tennis poll.
The Griz come into this weekend’s match with an overall record of 1-3. Their lone win was their most recent, defeating Northern Colorado, 4-3. The difference in the match for the Grizzlies was at the No. 6 singles, as Carla Lehman won in three sets.
SECOND STRAIGHT LOSS: The Eagles lost a 4-3 decision to West Virginia University, Feb. 10. The Eagles had the lead going in to singles, but were only able to come away with two singles victories. Vanessa Frankowski won her second straight match in two sets, 6-2, 6-3, over the Mountaineers’ Percival. Frankowski improves her overall record to 3-1, all at the No. 1 singles spot. The final win came from Joanna Woo at the No. 5 singles spot. Woo won a thriller in three sets against WVU’s Pilsbury, 5-7, 6-3, 12-10.
CLOSE LOSS TO XAVIER: The Eastern Michigan University women’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to the visiting Xavier University Musketeers on Feb. 2 at the Chippewa Club.
The Green and White struggled in doubles, dropping all three matches by a score of 9-7, which put them behind 1-0 going into singles action.
Three Eagles were victorious in their individual singles matches. Vanessa Frankowski, at the No. 1 spot, defeated Xavier’s Kara Courtney in two sets, 7-5, 6-1. At the No. 2 slot, Aditi Krishnan defeated Aylin Seyalioglu, 6-2, 6-3, to remain perfect on the season, with a 4-0 record in dual action. Eastern’s final win came from Tina Bestehorn at the No. 4 singles spot, defeating Kaitlyn Zinn, 6-2, 6-1.
EAGLES BREAK INTO THE POLLS AT No. 74: The Eagles have broken into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings for Jan. 29, as they appear at the No. 74 spot. This is the first ranking for the Green and White in nearly five years, as their last ranking came on March 24, 2003, when they were ranked 70th.
SPLITTING THE WEEKEND SERIES: The Eagles went 1-1 over the weekend of January 25-27. The Eagles dropped a 5-2 decision to the University of Wisconsin and then came back to defeat the University of Detroit Mercy, 4-3.
KRISHNAN STEPS UP: Senior Aditi Krishnan was perfect in singles play throughout the weekend. Versus Wisconsin, Krishnan defeated Katya Mirnova in two sets, 6-3, 6-3, at the No. 3 singles spot. At Detroit, she took over at No. 1 singles, beating Annie Moore, 7-5, 6-2, to help the Eagles edge the Titans. In doubles, she teamed up with Joanna Woo to defeat Detroit’s Kelly Davis and Svetlana Flankova 8-5.
BESTEHORN IS THE DIFFERENCE: Senior Tina Bestehorn’s battle at the No. 3 singles spot against Detroit’s Aneta Maricevic, proved to be the difference in the match versus the Titans. Bestehorn fell behind by a set, 3-6, and came back to win the next two (6-4, 6-4) to take the match.
EAGLES EDGE No. 72 SYCAMORES, 4-3: The Eagles opened up the spring part of their 2007-08 season on the road at Indiana State University Jan. 19, edging the nationally ranked Sycamores, 4-3.
The Eagles (1-0) opened up the match, taking two out of three doubles matches from the Sycamores (0-1). Tina Bestehorn and Aleksandra Stankovic teamed up to take down Fadzai Masiyazi and Sarah Meghoufel, winning 8-6. Aditi Krishnan and Joanna Woo won their doubles match, putting the Green and White up 1-0 going into singles action.
Krishnan, Woo and Stankovic all won their respective singles matches. Krishnan, at the No. 3 spot for the Green and White defeated Valeriia Petrovych in two sets, 6-2, 6-2. Stankovic, at the No. 5 slot easily defeated Marie Caujolle, 6-1, 6-0. The final Eagle to take a victory in singles competition was Woo at the number six singles spot, who won her match by default.
EAGLES PICKED TO FINISH FOURTH: The Eastern Michigan University women’s tennis team was picked to finish fourth in the preseason Mid-American Conference poll released by the league office. The Eagles return 2007 MAC Player of the Year Vanessa Frankowski who finished 7-1 in MAC play last year.
FRANKOWSKI DEBUTS AT No. 16 IN REGION: Vanessa Frankowski has worked her way into the initial Fila/ITA Midwest Rankings, debuting in the No. 16 slot.
Frankowski posted a 9-6 record during the fall portion of the Eagles schedule. She carded a 2-2 mark at the Hokie Invitational, defeating Jessica Keener of Marshall, 6-3, 7-5 and Kristin Nimitz of James Madison, 6-2, 6-4.
At the ITA Midwest Regional Championship, she posted a 2-1 record on the day, scoring wins over Kylie Moore (Marquette), 3-0 (retired, injury) and Gergana Ganeva (DePaul) 6-1, 7-6 (6) before falling to No. 108 ranked Jacqueline Lee (Iowa), 7-6 (3), 6-2.
The Midwest Region is comprised of 46 schools from the Big Ten, Big East, Atlantic Ten, Horizon, Mid-American, Summit, Missouri Valley, and Ohio Valley Conferences.
FRANKOWSKI FINDS SUCCESS AT ITA REGIONAL: Vanessa Frankowski competed at the 2007 Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Oct. 18-23. She went 2-1 in singles play throughout the five day event. In the first round of action, the senior defeated Kylie Moore of Marquette, who retired due to injury. She moved on and defeated Gergana Ganeva of DePaul, 6-1, 7-6 (6). In her final match, she lost to No. 108 Jacqueline Lee of Iowa, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
DOUBLES PLAY AT ITA REGIONAL: Aleksandra Stankovic and Tina Bestehorn teamed up and took Ghazal and Robison of Northwestern and were defeated by a score of 8-4. In the optional consolation round, Stankovic and Bestehorn defeated Coulson and Lish of IPFW, 8-1. Aditi Krishnan and Joanna Woo failed to advance after being blanked by the seventh seeded Fudge and Finnegan of Illinois. Vanessa Frankowski and Sandra Wikstrom with drew from the tournament after an injury to Wikstrom.
CHALLENGING WEEKEND AT HOKIE INVITE: The team traveled to Blacksburg, Va., (Oct. 5-7, 2007) to compete in the annual Hokie Fall Invitational. The team ended up going 12-16 in singles play and 6-6 in doubles. On the last day, though, the Eagles did go 4-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles, giving themselves a much needed boost.
WOO AND MICATI ON A ROLL: Senior Flavia Micati had an excellent fall season, as she went gone 6-1 this season in singles. She won a title at the Gopher invite and only lost once at the Hokie Invite. Junior Joanna Woo went 6-2 in singles competition in the first two tournaments, the best individual record on the team in fall play.
FRANKOWSKI IN CALI: Senior Vanessa Frankowski went 2-2 (October 2-3) at the ITA All-American Qualifying draw. She lost her first match to No. 42 Christy Striplin of Georgia Tech, who was part of last year’s national championship team. She won two straight consolation matches before dropping her final match to No. 107 Alex Haney of Auburn.
WIKSTROM: PART DEUX: Newcomer Sandra Wikstrom also competed out in California (Sept. 29-30, 2007) at the All-American Pre-Qualifer. Wikstrom competed in doubles with Frankowski, losing to No. 57 ranked Kaluder and Miseviciute of Arkansas. Wikstrom then took on strong competition, losing 6-2 to No. 122 Brittany Blalock of Cal-Poly.
GOPHER WRAP UP: At the Gopher Invitational Sept. 14-16, 2007, seniors Tina Bestehorn and Flavia Micati took home singles titles as they both went 4-0 on the weekend.
FRANKOWSKI RANKS No. 70 IN PRESEASON: The preseason ITA polls were announced and EMU’s Vanessa Frankowski was ranked No. 70. She finished off a stellar junior season last spring and was named the 2007 MAC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year and was awarded the MAC automatic bid into the tournament after posting a 7-1 conference record.
TEAM RECOGNIZED BY ITA: EMU women’s tennis was recognized by the ITA this summer as an 2007 ITA All-Academic team for their outstanding work on court and off the court. Teams must meet a minimum grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale), and athletes whose names are submitted to the ITA must complete in at least one varsity match and must average into the team GPA.
FOUR NAMED ITA SCHOLAR ATHLETES: Yana Parfenyuk, who finished off her eligibility last spring, and current seniors Catharina Bestehorn, Vanessa Frankowski and Aditi Krishnan were all named scholar-athletes for the second straight year.
