WATERLOO, Iowa – Sophomore Chanel Scudiero went undefeated in singles play, winning the championship title in the Panther bracket, while junior Kadi Ilves earned the third place championship in the Gold bracket at the University of Iowa Invitational Sunday.
"I feel this tournament was a good opportunity to execute the things I've been working on at practice," Scudiero said. "It was very rewarding to have confidence in a game plan and see the results follow."
In singles play, Scudiero initially received a bye, automatically advancing to the next round before defeating Bradley's Cassia Wojtalik, 6-1, 6-2. Scudiero then defeated South Dakota's Nina Barudzic, 6-1, 6-3, before earning the championship title by beating Northern Iowa's Sydney Wolfe, 6-1, 6-1, Sunday. In the same bracket, sophomore Natalie Parchowska earned the consolation title Sunday by beating Nicole Jones of Western Illinois, 6-1, 6-0.
In the Gold singles bracket, Ilves initially defeated St. Catherine's Maria Koval, 6-0, 6-2, and South Dakota's Dragana Brankovic, 6-1, 6-3, before falling to Bradley's Alexa Brandt, 6-4, 6-2. Ilves then defeated South Dakota's Rymma Maslova, 6-1, 6-0, to earn the third place championship title in the Gold bracket. Also in the Gold bracket, freshman Donna Haycock defeated Upper Iowa's Saki Kawabata, 3-6, 6-0, 1-0 (10-5), before falling to Northern Iowa's Elvira Lopez, 6-2, 6-1, and to Bradley's Ari Dechter, 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-7). Haycock defeated Northern Iowa's Astrid Santos, 6-7, 4-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-0).
Freshman Valerija Gercar defeated St. Catherine's Angie Lorenzen, 6-1, 6-1, and South Dakota's Sanjana Bidarkal, 6-1, 6-2, before falling to Northern Iowa's Gisela Kemper, 6-3, 6-2. Gercar competed for the third place championship versus Bradley's Ashley Thai but fell, 6-2, 6-3, in the Purple singles bracket. Freshman Cricket Geldermann initially received a bye, automatically advancing to the next round before falling to Bradley's Ashley Thai, 6-3, 6-3, and to Western Illinois' Jenna Wallace, 6-0, 6-0.
"I'm happy with the progress we are making," head coach Maja Kovacek said. "We will take a few days to recover and fine-tune some things to make sure we are ready for the MVC Individual Championship next weekend."
In the Panther doubles bracket, Parchowska and Geldermann earned the consolation title Sunday. They initially fell to South Dakota's Yamini Reddy and Bradley's Wojtalik, 8-7, (10-8), but then beat two Upper Iowa squads, 8-3, and, 8-1.
Haycock and Gercar defeated Western Illinois' Demos/Jones and St. Catherine's Mikinzee Salo/Maria Koval, 8-1, before falling to Bradley's Irinka Toidze/Ariel Dechter, 8-5, in the Purple doubles bracket.
In Gold doubles play, Scudiero and Ilves received a bye, automatically advancing to the next round before falling to South Dakota's Dragana Brankovic/Rymma Maslova, 8-5. The duo competed for the third place championship but fell to Northern Iowa's Elvira Lopez/ Astrid Santos.
With the UNI Invitational complete, the Redbirds will head to Des Moines, Iowa to compete at the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships this upcoming weekend, Oct. 3-5.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
