Marshall University Athletics
Marshall, Eastern Michigan Advance To Sunday's Championship Match
4/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Marshall, Eastern Michigan Advance To Sunday's Championship Match
4/30/2001
Huntington, WV- Marshall University and Eastern Michigan University each clinched a spot in the championship match of the 2001 Mid-American Conference Women's Tennis on Saturday afternoon at the Marshall University Tennis Courts.
Marshall advanced to the championship match for the second consecutive season with a 4-0 win over Miami University. Marshall's Anna Mitina defeated Miami's Ivona Grujic, 6-2, 6-1, at the No. 1 spot to get the Herd rolling. The Herd's Ana Ceretto also notched a win over Kadija Richards in the No. 2 slot, 6-3, 6-2. Rounding out the scoring in singles play was Vicky Lee as she knocked off Miami's Catherine Dilley, 6-2, 6-0. Marshall also picked up the doubles point.
"Getting into the finals was our focus," Marshall head coach Laurie Mercer said. "That has been our goal all season and anything less would have been a disappointment. Eastern Michigan is a very good team and they're playing maybe their best tennis of the season right now."
"We hit the ball very well, but we were competing at one level below Marshall," Miami head coach Ray Reppert said. "Marshall played very high energy, ball control tennis today."
Eastern Michigan claimed the upset of the day by knocking off the defending MAC Tournament Champion Western Michigan Broncos, 4-2, in a match that lasted nearly four hours.
"It is a big win at the right time," Eastern Michigan head coach Dave Farmer said. "They (Western Michigan) had one of their players out and played us right down to the bone. They brought their best game and we had to fight them right down to the last point."
"It was a well deserved, hard fought win. It is the rivalry, so it has to come down to that."
The Eagles struck first by capturing the doubles point. At the No. 1 slot, Eastern's Rebecca Hawkins defeated Western's Larissa Chinwah, 7-6 (1), 6-3. Lisa D'Amelio of Eastern also picked up a point with a 6-3, 6-0, win over Melanie Remynse in the No. 3 spot. Finishing the scoring for Eastern was No. 5 player, Shari Gamarnik, who knocked off Mariana Quintanilla of Western, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
The Championship Match will be played on Sunday, April 29, at 1 p.m. at the Marshall Tennis Courts.
SUNDAY'S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Marshall University Tennis Courts
No. 2 Marshall vs. No. #4 Eastern Michigan, 1 p.m.