Champions Crowned at PSAC Individual Tennis Championships
Host Bloomsburg's Championship Page (w/final brackets)
Champions in each of the four brackets were crowned on Sunday at the PSAC Individual Tennis Championships.
In women's doubles, the two top seeds advanced to the finals, where top-seeded Lucie Rey and Lucie Sipkova of California won the title with an 8-1 win over second-seeded Emilia Osbourne and Tanya Timko of IUP.
That Cal duo also made up the singles championship match after Rey topped Katie Eaton of IUP 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinal and Sipkova bested Mercyhurst's Caroline Bristol in the other semi, 6-3, 6-1. In the title match, Sipkova, the No. 2 seed, topped Rey 6-0 in the first set before Rey was forced to retire due to injury, giving Sipkova the singles championship.
The top-seeded duo of Rushi Amin and Varun Desai of Kutztown beat second-seeded Travis Beck and Robert Rizea of Mercyhurst in the men's doubles final, 8-5.
Much like the women's singles draw, it ended up being the doubles champions playing for the singles title as Amin and Desai both advanced out of their semis to the title match, where Amin topped his teammate in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0 to capture the men's singles title.
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Host Bloomsburg's Championship Page (w/updated brackets)
The semifinals for the men's and women's single and women's doubles fields have been set and the men's doubles championship match is also set as play wrapped up on the first day of the PSAC Individual Tennis Championships.
The men's doubles field saw the top two seeds advance to Sunday's finals as Kutztown's Rushi Amin and Varun Desai, the top seed, advanced to the championship match with a pair of 8-2 wins while the No. 2 seeded duo of Travis Beck and Robert Rizea of Mercyhurst won its first match 8-1 and its second mach 8-4 to get to the final.
Three of the four individuals in the men's doubles final will also play in the men's singles semifinals as three of the top four seeds held and advanced to the semis. Amin, the top seed, advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 win in the first round and a 6-2, 6-3 win in the quarterfinal. He will face Rizea who knocked off the No. 4 seed Jody Sambrick of Millersville in the quarterfinal by a 6-2, 6-3 score. In the other half of the bracket, the No. 2 seed Desai and the No. 3 seed Kevin Caldwell of Edinboro will meet in the other semi. Caldwell advanced with a pair of straight set victories while Desai needed a 10-8 win the third set to advance out of the third round before winning in straight sets in the quarters.
The women's singles draw saw a couple of upsets. The top two seeds, California's Lucie Rey and Lucie Sipkova, each advanced in straight sets. Sipkova, the No. 2 seed, lost just three combined games in her two matches while dropped just one game in her second round match before prevailing in a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over teammate Alexandra Borgenhoff in the quarterfinals. Rey will face Katie Eaton of IUP, who won three straight matches in straight sets, including in the quarters against Bloomsburg's Michelle Perez, the No. 4 seed, by scores of 6-1, 6-3. Perez was a semifinalist in the last individual championships two years ago. Sipkova will face Mercyhurst's Caroline Bristol, who lost just a single game in her first two matches before topping the No. 3 seed Tanya Timko of IUP 7-5, 6-0 in the quarters.
Three of the top four seeds advanced to the semis in the women's doubles bracket. The top seeded duo of Rey and Sipkova of Cal breezed through their quarterfinal match, winning 8-3 after receiving a first round bye. They will face teammates Jade Pondicas and Ramona Czakon, the No. 3 seed, who dropped just two games in two matches. The No. 2 seed of Timko and Emilia Osborne of IUP advanced to the semis with a pair of 8-5 wins. They will face Slippery Rock's Janelle Krantz and Kasey Love, who also advanced with a of 8-5 victories, the second of which came against the No. 4 seeded duo of Hannah Pipkin and Ridhima Borooah of Kutztown.
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Host Bloomsburg's Championship Page (w/brackets)
The PSAC men's and women's individual tennis championships will be contested this weekend at Bloomsburg. Play will get underway on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and will run through Sunday afternoon.
These will be the first PSAC individual tennis championships since the fall of 2010. The individual championships were originally postponed last fall after the floods in early September in Northeast Pennsylvania made it impossible to hold the event. The championships were then scheduled to be held last spring at the same time as the team championships in April, but weather forced the cancellation of the individual championships in order to assure that the team championships could be played.
Because of the cancellation of last year's event, none of the defending champions from the 2010 fall individual championships will be returning to defend their titles this year.
In men's doubles, all eight teams and the 16 indiviudals that make up those duos are new from the last event, meaning none of them participated in doubles in the 2010 championships. Kutztown's Rushi Amin and Varun Desal are the top seed while Mercyhurst's Travis Beck and Robert Rizea are the No. 2 seed. In a new format for men's doubles this year, there are eight doubles teams as opposed to just six from the previous format, with the two teams that finished in the top two spots in last year's team championship allowed two doubles duos in the draw.
The men's singles draw also features an entirely new field from the last one, as all 16 individuals in the draw will be participating in their first PSAC individual championship. Kutztown has the top two seeds as the doubles team of Amin and Desal take the top two spots. Edinboro's Kevin Caldwell, last year's PSAC Freshman of the Year, is the No. 3 seed as the Fighting Scots are participating in their PSAC individual championships since the program's reinstatement two years ago. Millersville's Jody Sambrick rounds out the seeded players at No. 4.
The women's singles bracket features 30 players, only six of which played in the 2010 championships - Brittany Counts of West Chester, Ridhima Borooah of Kutztown, Michelle Perez of Bloomsburg, Melissa Plowman of Millersville, Katie Eaton of IUP and Caroline Bristol of Mercyhurst. Perez advanced to the semifinals as a freshman in 2010 while Counts went to the third round. California's Lucie Rey and Lucie Sipkova are the top two seeds, followed by IUP's Tanya Timko and Perez.
None of the full women's doubles teams from 2010 return to this year's field, but several individuals return with new partners. Three individuals from the four doubles teams that advanced to the 2010 semifinals return. California's Jade Pondicas will team with Ramona Czakon this year as the No. 3 seed after Pondicas won the doubles title with Anna Pieschl two years ago. That Cal duo topped the IUP duo of Emilia Osborne and Katie Eaton in the championship match in 2010, and the duo of Osborne and Eaton both return to this year's tournament but with different partners. Osborne will team with Timko for make up the No. 2 seed while Eaton will team with Erika Schnass. Mercyhurst's Caroline Bristol, who partnered with former teammate Kim Ezzo to advance to the semifinals in 2010, will team up with Sarah Balch this year. California's Rey and Sipkova are the top seed.
The complete schedule for the individual championships is below.
Saturday
10:00 am
Women’s Doubles round of 16
Men’s Doubles round of 8
Any women’s singles matches if not involved in doubles
11:30 or asap
Women’s doubles round of 8
Men’s doubles round of 4
Women’s singles that are available
Men’s singles that are available
1:15
Women’s singles round of 32 (13 courts)
2:00
Any remaining women’s singles round of 32
Men’s singles round of 16
3:00
Women’s singles round of 16 (8 courts)
4:00
Men’s singles round of 8 (4 courts)
5:00
women’s singles round of 8 (4 courts)
Sunday
8:30
Women’s doubles semifinals (2 courts)
Men’s doubles finals (1 court)
10:00
Women’s doubles finals (1 court)
Men’s singles semi (2 courts)
11:00 or asap
Women’s singles semi (2 courts)
12:00
Men’s finals (1 court)
1:00
Women’s singles finals (1 court)