Tennis Set to Compete at MAC Fall Individuals

Tennis at MAC Fall Individual Championships
Date	Thursday, Oct. 24-Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024
Venue	Riverside Athletic Club \| Hamilton, Ohio
Host	Miami & MAC
Notes/Stats	EMU Notes (pdf)
Results / Watch	MAC Tournament Site \| Official Bracket
Social Media	X: @EMUEaglesTennis \| Instagram: @EMU_Tennis

HAMILTON, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) -- Three members of the Eastern Michigan University tennis team are set to compete for titles at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Women's Fall Individual Championships that will take place Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 24-27, at the Riverside Athletic Club in Hamilton, Ohio. The three-day event, which is being hosted by Miami University, will be played on the indoor courts and will feature two singles entrants and one doubles team from each of the eight MAC schools that sponsor women's tennis.

TOURNAMENT INFO: THE BASICS
The eight schools that sponsor women's tennis have each selected two of their players to compete in the singles tournament and two players/one team to compete in doubles. The single elimination event gets underway Thursday, Oct. 24, with the first round of singles being played with matches at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. On Friday, Oct. 25, the day opens at 9 a.m. with the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament before seeing one round of consolation singles being played at 11 a.m. The winners of the first-round singles matches will then play in the quarterfinals starting at 2 p.m. On Saturday, action starts at 1 p.m. with doubles semifinals with the singles semifinals following at 4 p.m. The final day of action, Sunday, Oct. 27, will see the doubles championship match start at 10 a.m. with the singles championship match starting at approximately 12:30 p.m.

TOURNAMENT INFO: THE PLAYERS
The three players representing Eastern Michigan at the MAC Women's Fall Individual Championships this week include Sabina Brichackova in singles and doubles; Iva Daneva in singles; and Prerna Vichare in doubles. Brichackova and Vichare are entering their senior seasons with the Eagles have combined win totals (career singles + career doubles wins) at EMU of 98 and 75, respectively. Daneva is a freshman in her first collegiate season.

TOURNAMENT INFO: OPENING MATCHES
Sabina Brichackova will open play for Eastern with her first-round singles match against Elena Malykh (Ball State) set for 10 a.m. The two played one another during the 2022-23 season with Brichackova taking a 6-3, 6-4 victory. Iva Daneva will open her singles tournament in the noon block and will face Sara Zalukar (Miami). When doubles play opens Friday at 9 a.m., Brichackova and Prerna Vichare will face the team of Sarah Shahbaz and Isabelle Tanjuatco (Ball State).

FIRST SERVES
» Sabina Brichackova is two wins from securing her 100th career overall victory at Eastern Michigan. She has won 51 singles and 47 doubles matches for the Eagles.
» From 1982 through 2003, singles and doubles titles were played for in the MAC at all positions with the Eagles claiming 15 singles titles (six at No. 1) and nine doubles crowns (five at No. 1).
» The Eagles' 2024-25 roster features 10 players, including six returnees and four newcomers. In total, nine different nations are represented on the roster, including the U.S., Argentina, Czechia, India, Israel, Mexico, North Macedonia, Poland, and Russia.
» Ryan Kucera returns for his second season as the team's head coach and will look to guide the team to the MAC Tournament for the second year in a row, which would mark the first time it has happened since the 2014 and 2015 tournaments.
» Players are not the only addition to the roster this year as the coaching staff has added both Masha Polishchuk and Andrew Dobbs. Polishchuk, a MAC champion during her playing career at Ball State, will serve as a graduate assistant coach while Dobbs will serve as an undergraduate assistant.

LOOKING BACK: MAC INDIVIDUALS
While this is the first time the conference has held a fall individual championships competition, it is not the first time it has crowned singles and doubles champions. From 1981 through 2005, individual advancement through the singles and doubles brackets earned team points with the team earning the most points claiming the title. Since 2006, the tournament switched to a team vs. team competition with no individual events.
During the time of individual competitions, the Eagles captured 15 singles titles and nine doubles crowns with the most recent being won in 2003 by Lisa D'Amelio and Rebecca Hawkins. The duo captured the No. 1 doubles title for the second year in a row after D'Amelio won the No. 1 singles title and Hawkins was the champion at No. 2.

RECAP: ITA MIDWEST REGIONALS
A trio of Eagles competed at the 2024 ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 12-14, with Daniella Shved putting forth a solid performance as she won her first-round match in the main draw of the singles competition before falling in the Round of 32. Shved, who was one of only two players from non-power conference schools to reach the Round of 32, was the first Eagle to reach the round since Klara Supejova won twice to reach the Round of 16 in 2015.
Sabina Brichackova and Iva Daneva both competed in the qualifying tournament to try and make the main draw but fell one win short as they won their openers but fell in the final round. The duo also paired for the doubles competition and posted a 1-1 record. With the doubles win, Brichackova has won one doubles match at the ITA event for the second year in a row.

GOING FOR 100
Sabina Brichackova enters the MAC event with 98 career wins to her credit. The senior has won 51 singles matches for the Eagles and has added 47 doubles wins. Should she win twice in Hamilton, she would become the first Eagle to garner 100 career combined wins since both Ani Gogvadze (117) and Andrea Martinovska (111) accomplished the feat at the end of their 2018 senior seasons.

UP THE LADDER
Prerna Vichare, like Sabina Brichackova, is also nearing a spot on the top 20 ledger. Although Vichare did not play in the past two events, she currently has collected 46 wins in her doubles career, which leaves her one behind Brichackova and 10 victories shy of tying for 19th with Miriam Westerink (2008-12) and Avi Gogvadze (2014-18). Brichackova and Vichare have played together 50 times and are 31-19.

ON THE HORIZON
The final tournament of the fall awaits the Eagles next weekend when they travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take part in the Spartan Invitational, hosted by Michigan State University, Nov. 1-3.

FOLLOW US
For all things EMU Tennis, be sure to check out the team's social media accounts, including EMUEaglesTennis on X (formerly Twitter) and EMU_Tennis on Instagram.

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Players Mentioned

Sabina Brichackova

Iva Daneva

Daniella Shved

Prerna Vichare

Eastern Michigan Athletics