Lady Blazers advance to Final Four

The Valdosta Daily Times

May 16, 2008 02:31 am

— HOUSTON — The Valdosta State women's tennis team advanced to the school's second-ever NCAA Semifinal appearance as the Lady Blazers defeated Hawaii Pacific 5-0 Thursday at Homer Ford Park.
VSU easily won the three doubles points, beginning with an 8-1 victory at No. 3 where Natali Gumbrecht and Hollie Bees downed Tinka Mihova and Elena Hudzikova. Dominique Rothlaender and Tina Trautmann also won 8-1 over Ingrid Cseh and Lauren Shin at No. 1 while Raphaelle Durante and Karine Redon claimed an 8-2 victory over Anastasia Ageychick and Nina Mihova at No. 2.
Redon put VSU up 4-0 with a straight set 6-0, 6-0 win over Shin at No. 6 while Bees closed out the match with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Tinka Mihova at No. 5. The Lady Blazers' only other Final Four appearance came in 2004. Valdosta State will face Lyn at 9 a.m. today at Memorial Park.

Blazers Fall 5-3 to Drury
Drury overcame an early 2-1 deficit to defeat Valdosta State 5-3 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon at Homer Ford Park.
VSU jumped out to an early lead as they claimed two of the three points in doubles play. Joerg Ekkenga and Leos Jelinek downed Stefan Borg and Nikola Prpic 8-3 at No. 1 while Florian Halb and Richard Malobicky defeated Frederico Levi and Anton Khadasevich 8-4 at No. 2. The Blazers' Otto Lenhart and Michael Kuech raced out to a 6-2 lead at No. 3, but DU's Florian Perche and Nahom Serekeberhan rebounded to win the next six games to claim an 8-6 victory at No. 3.
Jelinek pushed the Valdosta State lead to 3-1 with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Levi at No. 2 singled, but Borg defeated Halb 6-3, 7-6 (0) to move Drury back to within one point. Khadasevich evened the match with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Lenhart at No. 4 before Antonio Garcia put DU in front with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory over Kuech at No. 6. Prpic closed out the match as he topped Ben Cattan 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 at No. 5.
Valdosta State ends its season with a 15-6 record.