Men and Women Set for Tournament Championship Tomorrow
4/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 24, 2010
Corpus Christi, Texas - Both the UT Arlington women's and men's tennis teams will get a chance to be crowned the 2010 Southland Conference Champions Sunday afternoon in Corpus Christi, Texas. The women earned a 4-0 second round win over Texas State while the men notched a 4-3 victory against UTPA.
"I'm very proud of what we are doing in the UTA tennis program," said Head Coach Diego Benitez. It sends a big signal to everybody in the conference and the nation that we have two first class programs. Tomorrow we're going to try and bring the titles home."
The women will have a rematch over undefeated Northwestern State for the title Sunday at noon. The Lady Demons earned a 4-0 first round win over Stephen F. Austin and recorded a 4-0 second round victory against Lamar.
"It's great to be in the finals for the second year in-a-row," said Benitez. "We're the defending champions of the tournament and I think the girls embrace that. Tomorrow we're going to be very, very confident and be ready to go against whoever the other team is."
The Mavs opened day two of the tournament with doubles action where they easily took two of the three flights. The number one flight with Daiana Negreanu and Klara Jagosova went unfinished with UTA leading 8-7.
"They came up very strong again in doubles today for the bonus point and we were able to get three dominate performances in singles," said Benitez.
Katarina Mlcochova and Monika Hadvigerova notched an 8-6 win over Melissa Hadad and Nyssa Peele in the No. 2 spot while Maria Martinez Romero and Nikola Matovicova notched an 8-1 victory in the No. 3 position.
With the Mavericks leading 1-0 heading into singles action, UTA finished off the Bobcats winning three of the six flights. The No. 1, 2 and 6 flights went unfinished with UT Arlington leading in all three.
Jagosova handed Gabriela Rojas a 6-2, 6-2 loss in the No. 3 position while Martinez-Romero defeated Mariana Perez 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 4 spot. Martinez-Romero improved on her overall singles record to 14-3.
Negreanu wrapped up the match with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Kiki Kruse in the No. 5 spot.
In a nearby court the men were taking on No. 4 seed UTPA for the second time this season. The Mavericks fought hard and just like their first meeting with the Broncs it came down to the No. 1 singles match with Dmitry Minkin.
Minkin once again showed why he is the Mavs team captain and leader, as he lifted UTA to a 4-3 victory with a hard-fought three-set win over Southland Conference Player of the Year Aswin Vijayaragavan.
"We knew it was going to be tough with Pan American, we played them a week ago and it was just as hard. We were down on the scoreboard but we were able to pull it out. They stayed focused, came back strong and fought for the objective," added Benitez.
In doubles competition, UTA earned the point by winning the No. 2 and 3 flights. Brieuc Hamon and Yauheni Yakauleu led things off with an 8-3 win over Vijayaragavan and Nirvick Mohinta in the No. 2 spot while No. 1 doubles team of Minkin and Mindaugas Celedinas dropped an 8-5 decision.
Adam Srkala and Gonzalo Bienzobas defeated Marcus Dornauf and Andrew Irving 9-7 in the No. 3 position.
After a short intermission, the Broncs knotted the score with a win in the No. 6 spot. Lateko dropped a 6-0, 6-3 decision to Mohinta.
Yakauleu gave the Mavs a 2-1 advantage with a straight set win over Dornauf in the No. 4 position while Beau Bernstein evened up the score for the second time with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) win in the No. 3 spot over Hamon.
Brett Bernstein gave UTPA a 3-2 lead by defeating Celedinas in the No. 2 flight 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 but David Subirats quickly changed that with a win in the No. 5 spot over Irving.
The Mavs will now face No. 2 seed UTSA tomorrow at the HEB Tennis Courts at 3 p.m. for the tournament championship.
