Tennis Set to Host Block E Invitational

Tennis vs. BLOCK E INVITATIONAL
Date	Friday, Sept. 20-Saturday, Sept. 21
Venue	Chippewa Club \| Ypsilanti, Mich.
Teams	EMU, Bowling Green, Findlay, Oakland, Wayne State, Youngstown State
Watch	n/a
Results	Posted on EMUEagles.com each night
Social Media	X: @EMUEaglesTennis \| Instagram: @EMU_Tennis

YPSILANTI (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University tennis program is set to open its 2024 fall schedule this week as the Eagles will play host to the Block E Invitational, Friday-Saturday, Sept. 20-21, at the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti. The six-team tournament will see the Eagles face players from Bowling Green, Findlay, Oakland, Wayne State, and Youngstown State, and will feature seven flights of singles and four flights of doubles.

TOURNAMENT INFO: THE BASICS
Eastern Michigan will be joined by players from Bowling Green, Findlay, Oakland, Wayne State, and Youngstown State for the two day event on the outdoor courts of the Chippewa Club near campus. The tournament is broken into seven flights of singles (1-7) and four flights of doubles (1-4). The tournament schedule will feature two rounds of singles and one round of doubles played Friday, Sept. 20, with one round of singles and two rounds of doubles played Saturday, Sept. 21.

TOURNAMENT INFO: HOW IT WORKS
At the Block E Invitational, all flights will be played out to place. The event, which is not scored for teams, will see each flight start in the quarterfinals with the four winners moving on to the semifinals where the winners will play for the title and the losing pair will play for the third. The same is done on the back side of the bracket as the four losing players in the quarterfinals will play in the consolation semifinals for a chance to play for fifth place while the losing entrants playing for seventh.

FIRST SERVES
» The program is hosting its inaugural Eagle-Am event, Sunday, Sept. 29, with registrants being paired with members of the team for a doubles tournament followed by lunch.
» 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.
» The returning players include seniors Sabina Brichackova, Lily Tria, and Prerna Vichare; juniors Regina Mendez and Daniella Shved; and sophomore Kseniia Saenko.
» Three freshmen and one transfer comprise the newcomers to Ypsilanti this year. Senior Marta Komar comes to the program after a successful career at nearby Wayne State while the freshmen class includes Iva Daneva (North Macedonia), Lara Diaz Zayas (Argentina), and Viki Hazmukova (Czechia).
» 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.

DOUBLE UP
Eastern Tennis will be playing host to the inaugural Eagle-Am, which will take place Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti. Those donating to the event will be paired with a current member of the team to play in a doubles tournament that will consist of three to four rounds of 10-point tie breaks. All registrants will receive and EMU Tennis T-shirt and lunch! For more information and to register, click on the link: https://alumni-donor.connect.emich.edu/e/emu-tennis-doubles-social/.

RETURNING RECOGNITION
Daniella Shved is set for her third season with the Eagles and will look to build upon her previous two stellar seasons in which she earned All-MAC First Team accolades. Only the 12th player in program history to become a two-time honoree, Shved tallied 25 combined wins on the year with 13 singles and 12 doubles victories. One of her biggest wins of the year came with a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) defeat of Toledo's Cassi Alcala, the MAC Player of the Year, to help EMU down the Rockets, 4-3, and snap their 18-match MAC winning streak.

ON THE RISE
Both Sabina Brichackova and Prerna Vichare continue to climb higher toward the program's all-time top 20 for wins. Brichackova has posted career totals to 89 combined victories on 46 singles and 43 doubles wins while Vichare has 69 combined wins with both juniors having a shot at reaching the top 20 this season.

BACK FOR MORE
Kseniia Saenko led the team in 2023-24 with 38 combined wins, including 22 in singles and 16 in doubles. The then-freshman ranked second on the roster in singles wins and was tied for the lead in doubles wins as well. A member of the 2024 MAC All-Tournament team, Saenko was twice named the MAC Doubles Team of the Week with teammate Sabina Brichackova.

HELLO! MY NAME IS...
Eastern welcomed four newcomers to the roster this year, including one transfer and three freshmen. Marta Komar is the lone transfer as she comes from nearby Wayne State and is set for her senior season with the Eagles. The rookie class includes Iva Daneva (North Macedonia), Lara Diaz Zayas (Argentina), and Viki Hazmukova (Czechia).

WELCOME ABOARD
The coaching staff has grown for the 2024-25 season as Ryan Kucera has added Masha Polishchuk as a graduate assistant coach and Andrew Dobbs as an undergraduate assistant. Polishchuk is no stranger to the MAC as she was a three-year No. 1 singles player at Ball State. The 2023 MAC Player of the Year and 2023 MAC Tournament MVP, she finished her collegiate career playing at Texas Tech last season before coming to Ypsilanti.

LOOKING BACK
Eastern finished the 2023-24 campaign with a 12-11 record that saw the Eagles reach the MAC Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2018. Despite falling to top-seeded and host Toledo, 4-3, in the tournament, the Eagles posted impressive results throughout the season, including posted a perfect 11-0 home record that included a 4-3 win over the Rockets to halt their 18-match MAC winning streak. Eastern posted a perfect home record for just the fourth time in program history and the first since going 7-0 during the 2003-04 season.

FINDING A WAY IN
The 2023-24 season marked the fourth as a collegiate head coach for Ryan Kucera. With his Eagles making the MAC Tournament field, he has successfully guided a team to the conference semifinals in three consecutive seasons, all with different teams. He first helped Minnesota State to the semifinals of the 2022 Northern Sun Conference Tournament before guiding Milwaukee to the semifinals of the 2023 Horizon League Tournament.

ON THE HORIZON
Eastern is back in action Oct. 4-6, when it travels to Bloomington, Ind., for the Indiana Classic. The three-day tournament will be hosted by Indiana University on its Varsity Tennis Courts.

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.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sabina Brichackova

Iva Daneva

Lara Diaz Zayas

Viki Hazmukova

Marta Komar

Regina Mendez Carreño

Kseniia Saenko

Daniella Shved

Lily Tria

Prerna Vichare

Eastern Michigan Athletics