Results

OMAHA, Neb. – In one of the longest, most hard-fought matches of the year, it was Southern Illinois coming away with a 4-0 victory over the Purple Aces women’s tennis team on Friday morning in the State Farm MVC Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
 
“Our team laid it all on the line today, they battled to the end in what was a very long match,” head coach Nick Mueller said.  “The girls represented the University of Evansville and our program extremely well today.”
 
Southern Illinois, who improved to 17-4 with the win and advance to face top-seeded Wichita State, got out to the early lead by winning the doubles point.  Anita Lee and Anastacia Simons dealt Aleks Dzakula and Jessica Raatz their first MVC loss, 8-5.  Kelsey Costales and Emily Richardson fell to Natasha Tomishima and Jennifer Dien by a 9-7 final.
 
Dora Kotsiou and Natasha James did their best to keep UE in the fight, taking an 8-1 victory over Melanie Delsart and Korey Love.
 
The Salukis also picked up wins in the first three finishing singles matches.  In the MVC Tournament, when a team clinches the match, all ongoing matches are stopped, resulting in the 4-0 final.
 
Kotsiou fell in the top singles spot to Delsart, 6-0, 6-3 while the other clinching singles matches went three sets.  Dzakula battled Dien in the No. 2 slot, but fell 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.  After winning the first set, Mina Milovic fell to Tomishima in three sets, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
 
Other matches that were stopped include James against Lee, which was in a third set while Gaby Fifer was leading Ariadna Cairo Baza midway through the second set.  The sixth flight between Raatz and Gisela Cairo Baza was not started.
 
Evansville wraps up the season with a 13-9 record, sending seniors Dzakula, Kotsiou and Raatz out with a winning record for the year.  Dzakula and Raatz finished the spring with an 18-4 doubles mark, earning All-Conference honors in the third doubles flight while Kotsiou was 13-8, garnering All-Select Team honors for 2012.