Women's Tennis | October 2
CLEVELAND, Oh. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team competed in the Horizon League Individual Championships at Cleveland State this weekend, winning the singles main draw. The fall invite included Cleveland State, IU Indy, Milwaukee, NIU, Oakland and Youngstown State.
Irmak Budak claimed the singles main draw title with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Youngstown State's Duru Kusco, earning a berth in the ITA Conference Masters next month.
"I'm really proud of the effort our team showed all weekend and super proud of Irmak battling through a tough draw and a tough player from Youngstown today," said head coach
Eric Burns. "We had a great weekend of tennis for the second week in a row and to have three players in the singles semifinals shows the depth this team has."
In the doubles main draw,
Natalia Varela Herrera /
Lucia Yecora reached the semifinals, but fell 8-3 to top-seeded Edie Hammond / Martina Marusinova of Oakland.
"This was a tough tournament physically and mentally," said Burns. "All the matches were close and Irmak had to win four of her five matches in three sets. To do that over three days is a testament to the toughness and resilience she showed. Now we have a quick turnaround with ITA Regional this weekend and not much time to recover, but we will be ready for qualifying to start on Thursday."
On Friday, all five Huskies participating in the single main draw advanced to the Round of 16 and three moved into the third round. Two of the three doubles teams for NIU advanced to quarterfinals of the doubles main draw.
Saturday saw NIU claim three of the four positions in the semifinals of the singles main draw and reach the semifinals of the doubles.
Day One
Irmak Budak,
Rebeca Garcia Miralles and
Theodora Kousiou each punched their tickets to the third round of the singles main draw on Friday afternoon. Both Budak and Kousiou used a pair three-set victories to advance.
Budak, the No. 5 seed, began with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Oakland's Oliwia Klimas and downed Milwaukee's Valentina Vallova by score of 6-7, 6-2, 6-1. Kousiou defeated Mel Petkova in the opening round and knocked off top-seeded Martina Marusinova of Oakland, winning 0-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Garcia Miralles started with a victory over Cleveland State's Leah Geisz and used a three-set victory of her own to reach the third round, defeating Oakland's Nisa Bulut 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Both
Natalia Varela Herrera and
Lucia Yecora reached the Round of 16 with wins over IU Indy.
In doubles, Garcia Miralles / Sophia Sklyakhta advanced to the quarterfinals with a 8-4 win over Cleveland State while Varela Herrera / Yecora defeated Youngstown State to move on.
Day Two
Saturday began with similar results with Budak, Garcia Miralles and Kousiou each advancing in the singles main draw. All three won in straight sets, highlighted by Budak downing No. 4 seed Hannah Telzynska of Youngstown State.
The Huskies represented three of the four participants in the semifinals, leading to Budak and Kousiou facing one another while Garcia Miralles took on Youngstown State's Duru Kuscu. Budak and Kousiou battled for three sets as Budak prevailed 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. Garcia Miralles went down to the wire against Kuscu in the semifinals with Kuscu holding on to win 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 (7).
NIU advanced in the doubles main draw as well as Varela Herrera / Yecora handled Milwaukee's Natalia Castaneda / Valentina Vallova 8-1 to reach the semifinals.
