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The 2022 Ohio Valley Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Championship continues today at the Wesselman Tennis Center in Evnasville, Ind.
The women kick things off with semifinal action at 10 a.m. CT. Top-seeded Austin Peay will face No. 5 Murray State while No. 2 Southeast Missouri will play No. 3 Belmont.
The men will begin at 2 p.m. CT with No. 1 Belmont facking No. 5 Eastern Illinois and No. 2 Tennessee Tech facing No. 3 Tennesse State.
Women's Recaps
#1 AUSITN PEAY, 4 #5 MURRAY STATE 3
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Austin Peay State University women's tennis team mounted an improbable comeback in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship semifinals, erasing a 3-1 deficit against Murray State to punch its fourth-straight trip to the title match, Saturday, at the Wesselman Tennis Center.
Similar to its come-from-behind victory against Southeast Missouri in last season's championship match, Austin Peay (11-6, 6-1 OVC) fell behind early after dropping the doubles point for just the second time in its last 12 matches.
Senior Danielle Morris and redshirt sophomore Jana Leder's gave the Governors the early doubles advantage with their seventh win of the season. The duo defeated the Racers' tandem of Annika Pschorr and Sarah Bureau, 6-1, and have won two of their last three matches.
The Racers answered quickly, defeating APSU's All-OVC Doubles Team pairing of Denise Torrealba and Honoka Nakanishi, before edging past Aleks Topalovic and Yu-Hua Cheng in the tiebreaker on court three.
Trailing early, Morris' match was the first to go final, as her opponent retired late in the first set as Morris led 5-0 in the first set. The win is Morris' ninth of the season and improves to the Second Team All-OVC selection 9-1 in the spring, 14-2 on the season and 4-1 from the No. 4 position.
Despite APSU evening the score at one, the Racers answered back with wins on the No. 1 and No. 3 courts against a pair of the Govs' top singles players in Torrealba and Paladini-Jennings.
Austin Peay trailed 3-1 following Paladini-Jennings' loss and needed to win all three remaining matches to secure the victory. At the point of the score turning to 3-1 in the Racers' favor, each of the remaining matches were in their third set with Leder and Topalovic leading, 3-2, and Cheng leading, 4-2.
Leder's match was the first of the three to go final, as the Remchingen, Germany native came back after dropping her first set, 6-1, to win the following two, 6-0, 6-3 and trim the deficit to one.
Moments after Leder's victory on the No. 2 court, Topalovic earned a crucial victory at the No. 5 position, defeating MSU's Gabrielle Geolier, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to even the match at three and shift all the attention to the freshman, Cheng.
Cheng entered Saturday's semifinal match as the only Gov without a conference loss, as this did not change for New Taipei City, Taiwan native following her match on the No. 6 singles court.
After winning her first set, 6-0, Cheng dropped the second, 6-3. She was able to maintain a narrow advantage midway through the third set in which she led, 4-3, before winning two-straight games before securing the improbable comeback and earning her the most notable of her 11 singles victories this spring.
With the victory, the Govs advance to the OVC Championship match for the fourth-straight season and look to claim their third tournament title in as many years.
Austin Peay's match against the Redhawks begins at 10 a.m., Sunday, at the Wesselman Tennis Center.
#2 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 4, #3 BELMONT 0
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The No. 2-seeded Southeast Missouri women's tennis team (14-6) swept #3 Belmont (13-8), 4-0, Saturday afternoon at the Wesselman Tennis Complex to advance to Sunday's 2022 Ohio Valley Conference Tennis Championship Final.
SEMO secured its second-straight OVC Championship Final berth with three singles wins after capturing the doubles point against No. 3 seed Belmont Saturday.
The Redhawks will face top seeded and 2022 OVC Regular-Season Champion, Austin Peay (11-6), Sunday at 10 a.m., CT in a matchup of the top two teams in the conference.
The Governors overcame #5 Murray State, 4-3, in the Semifinals Saturday.
Myroslava Zelenchuk, Vivian Lai, and Teona Velkoska all registered doubles and singles wins during the Semifinal against Belmont.
Zelenchuk and Lai beat Taylor Trondson and Anastasiya Zholdakova, 6-2, at the third doubles position. With the win, Zelenchuk and Lai improved to 7-3 in 2022.
The 2022 All-OVC Doubles Team of Daniela Hlacikova and Velkoska then defeated Somer Henry and Peyton Lee, 6-3, at the middle slot to provide the Redhawks an early 1-0 advantage heading to singles.
The tandem of Hlacikova and Velkoska improved to a team-best 13-3 in 2022 after the victory.
The Redhawks then completed the sweep of the Bruins with singles victories at the fourth, sixth and fifth slots.
Zelenchuk, a freshman from Lviv, Ukraine, won her fifth-straight singles match at the fourth flight, dropping Abi Solomon, 6-4, 6-1.
Zelenchuk improved to 12-6 this season in singles matches and is one of four Redhawks with the win (12) total in 2022.
Velkoska, a senior from Prilep, Macedonia, then defeated Lauren Carelli, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 6 to move to a career best 12-6 this campaign.
Lai then fought past Peyton Lee, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, at the fifth slot to finalize the victory for SEMO.
Lai, a junior from Taipei, Taiwan, leads the Redhawks this season with a 14-4 record.
SEMO's top three singles positions all went unfinished in the third set.
Romana Tarajova, a 2022 All-OVC First Teamer, won the second set (6-1) after dropping the opening set, 6-1, to 2022 OVC Freshman of the Year and Co-Player of the Year Gina Feistel, at the top flight.
Hlacikova, a 2022 All-OVC First Team performer, and Henry were in the third set at No. 2. Hlacikova took the opening set, 6-3, before Henry evened the match at 1-1 with a 6-4 second set.
Ksenia Shikanova and Zholdakova were tied at 1-1 (4-6, 6-3) in the third set at the third spot.
SEMO will take on #1 Austin Peay (11-6) on Sunday in the 2022 OVC Championship Tennis Championship Final. The match is set for 10 a.m., CT at the Wesselman Tennis Center.
Men's Recaps
#1 BELMONT 4, #5 EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -The Belmont Bruins men's tennis teamadvanced to the 2022 OVC Championship match after besting conference fifth seed Eastern Illinois 4-0 earlier today.
The last time the Panthers and Bruins played, Belmont got over some errors in execution to best the team 5-2 two weeks back in Charleston. This time around the feisty Bruins were not going to leave any point on the playing surface.
In doubles play, Belmont managed to get that point they lost at Eastern Illinois back. On court one, the best pairing for BU made their point loud and clear. Behind steady rotation, sound communication, and quick adjustments on the fly, all-conference duo Jack Randall and Arthur Toledo took down Cameron Slabbert and Charles Courteau 6-4.
One court over on pair two, the dynamic duo of Tomas Luis and Diego Castro looked as seasoned as their two-year partnership suggests. After dealing with a slight hiccup that allowed Christos Kyrillou and Thomas Wallace to cut their deficit down from 5-2 to 5-4, Luis and Castro closed the deal like CEOs: 6-4.
Doubles' point was secured.
In singles, Belmont got set one takedowns on all six slabs. From wreckings like Toledo's 6-1 win to another gritty opening set that Luis brought home against Kyrillou 7-5, the range in drama made this win more satisfying than an extra big piece of cookie dough in your late night Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Still, Belmont made sure to shut the door.
The first to climb the mountain was BU wins leader Ian Cruz. The sophomore from Brazil captured court three with two 6-1 finishes against Cameron Slabbert.
Just like doubles, the finish came in rapid fire fashion for Belmont. After Cruz, seniors Toledo and Taisei Miyamoto both sealed the semifinal victory after two sets.
Now, the Bruins have one final date with OVC glory. In their path, the second seed in the tournament out of Tennessee Tech. These two teams have played once before. It seems like the OVC title is always a coin toss between Belmont and TTU.
The Bruins and Golden Eagles have battled each other four times in the conference tournament. Two of those matches were the OVC Championship matches in 2021 and 2018. Each side has beaten the other, but Belmont took down TTU last year to end the program's dominance after winning the OVC tournament four straight times.
Last week, Belmont beat Tennessee Tech 5-2 on Senior Day to win their second OVC regular season crown. Vengeance is on TTU's mind after they beat Tennessee State in the semifinals. Meanwhile for Belmont, it is the last chapter in this incredible conference rivalry.
The championship match will begin tomorrow at 2 p.m. on the grounds of the Wesselman Tennis Center in Evansville, Ind.
#2 TENNESSEE TECH 4, #3 TENNESSEE STATE 0
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Tennessee Tech defeated Tennessee State, 4-0, to adavance to the 2022 OVC Men's Tennis Championship Final.
The Golden Eagles earned the doubles point and wins on 2, 4, and six singles.
Full recap coming soon.