Oct. 11, 2008
Stats
DES MOINES, Iowa -
Illinois State's senior Tanja Hrovatic and sophomore Carmen Peters are one step closer to singles titles, as both Redbirds advanced Saturday to the final round of singles play at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Individual Championships at the Drake Tennis Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
The women's tennis team will also be sending two doubles pairs into finals.
In singles play, Hrovatic advanced to the final round in Flight 4 singles after a win against Jessica Kunzelmann (Northern Iowa), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. She is expecting to play Florentina Hanisch (Wichita State) for the title.
Peters outplayed Sarah Cadwallader of Creighton, 6-3, 6-2, in Flight 6 semifinals. Peters will face Torrie Browning, also from Wichita State, in the finals.
In Flight 1 of doubles play, Julia Zubkova and Franziska Steinhardt went up against Sarah Meghoufel and Valeriia Petrovych of Indiana State, defeating them, 8-6, to move into the final round. The pair will be matched up against Stephanie Delmacio and Laryssa Ferreria (Wichita State).
The Redbird duo of Peters and Natalia Lech will compete for the Flight 3 doubles title after shutting out Veronika Wojakowski and Erin Krubeck (Bradley), 8-0, in the semifinal round. Hrovatic and Hannah Esker grabbed a win, 8-5, in the back draw of Flight 2 doubles against Bradley's Jessica Buterbaugh and Kelly Donohue.
Redbird teammates Esker, Lech and Sarah Strietz fell to competition during singles play Saturday.
After a tough day of competition, head coach Chris Hoover feels the team did not play up to their potential, but is glad to see a few Redbirds compete for titles.
"We started off the day well, but some of the girls didn't seem there," said Hoover. "Hannah lost a tough match and Tanja ended up pulling off a win to carry her into the finals. It would have been nice to see more girls advance, but I'm pleased to see some of our kids in the finals.
"I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow [in finals]. The league has gotten a lot better all around us. ISU has been a pretty tough and strong competitor. It`s hard to say what will happen."
The tournament concludes with finals action Sunday.
