Miami University
Toledo (Semifinals)
Miami Earns Championship Match Appearance with 4-0 Win
4/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 25, 2009
PERRYSBURG, Ohio -- Miami jumped out to quick leads across the board Saturday morning, then survived several Toledo rallies in a 4-0 victory over the Rockets in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tennis Championship at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. The win was the 11th straight for the 75th-ranked RedHawks.
Top-seeded Miami (14-6) will face No. 3 Western Michigan, a 4-3 semifinal winner over Buffalo, tomorrow for the league title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The RedHawks defeated the Broncos 4-3 last weekend in Kalamazoo in the teams' only regular-season meeting.
Miami won the doubles point for the 12th time in the last 13 matches. Anastasia Dracheva and Monica Gorny got things started at No. 2 with their 13 straight win. They were broken in the first game, but won the next eight for an 8-1 triumph. Stephanie Danesis and Megan Martzolf secured a 1-0 lead with an 8-2 win at No. 2. They won the first two games, but dropped back-to-back games before rallying. The RedHawks' No. 3 team of Riekie Honiball and Brintney Larson were on the verge of victory, tied 30-30 with a 7-3 lead when play was halted.
Gorny put Miami up 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-0 whitewashing at No. 1 singles in a match that lasted just 41 minutes. The RedHawks continued to pound away at the Rockets, winning four of the other first sets, but then things got tight. Larson posted a 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 5 to put Miami up 3-0, then Megan Martzolf sent the RedHawks into Sunday's championship match with a 7-5, 6-1 victory at No. 4. Less than 10 seconds later, Danesis completed a 6-3, 6-4 victory that made the final score 5-0. The decision was allowed to stand as the final point was in progress when the RedHawks clinched.
In the two abandoned matches, Dracheva was forced to a third set for the first time in 13 matches. A winner of 12 in a row, she took the first set 6-2, before dropping the second 6-1. The players were on serve with Dracheva down 1-2 when the match was called. Finally, Toledo was enroute to a victory at No. 6 as Honiball trailed 6-2, 4-3.
"I think we played one of our best matches of the year today in terms of quality of tennis and competitive spirit," Head Coach Howard Joffe said. "We have worked all year to get to this point and are excited about playing for the championship tomorrow."
The championship match is scheduled to be played at the Keefe Tennis Center on the BG campus at 1 p.m. Sunday. Both of the semifinal were contested indoors because wind gusts exceeded the NCAA maximum for an outdoor match.
