Lynn women book trip to nationals

Published May 12th, 2008

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR

The Lynn women tennis team is returning to familiar territory, as the Knights won their 12th straight regional title with a 5-0 victory over Sunshine State Conference rival Florida Southern in the Southeastern Region Womens Tennis Championships in Boca Raton Friday.

The Knights top three doubles teams swept Florida Southern for the first three points of the match, then Katerina Jiskrova and Magdalena Ekert won their singles matches to provide the final margin.

Alexandra Schunk and Victoria Weltz won at No. 1 doubles to improve their overall record to 23-1 this season.

Schunk won the first set of her singles match against the Moccasins’ Karolina Stochlova 6-2, and led the second 3-2 before Lynn earned the deciding point.

“Two matches in a row is pretty good to get back, and now we start nationals on Wednesday,” Schunk said.

Friday also marked the last home match for Schunk and Lynn No. 1 player Victoria Weltz.

“It’s very nice, it’s very sad at the same time,” Schunk said. “I don’t want to leave, but it’s great, especially since we won.”

The Knights go to Houston to play in the NCAA Division II Tournament Wednesday, where they have reached the semifinals the last five years in a row.

Lynn coach Mike Perez said his team is still working off the rust from a three-week layoff, but he said the girls were much sharper than they had been in Friday’s 5-0 win over Carson Newman.

Monday he’ll put the girls through a long practice in an effort to chip away some more rust.

The key, he said, is “to get past through first two rounds. There’s not much rust after that.”

Scores are as follows:

Singles competition

1. No. 18 Victoria Weltz (LUW) vs. No. 15 Senka Softic (FSW) 2-6, 3-4, unfinished

2. No. 17 Alexandra Schunk (LUW) vs. Karolina Stochlova (FSW) 6-2, 3-2, unfinished

3. No. 24 Katerina Jiskrova (LUW) def. Ashley Hungerford (FSW) 6-1, 6-0

4. Alisson Siaci (LUW) vs. Erin Conroy (FSW) 6-1, 4-1, unfinished

5. Magdalena Ekert (LUW) def. Mona Sendesni (FSW) 6-1, 6-2

6. Eleonora Iannozzi (LUW) vs. Veronika Kovacikova (FSW) 6-0, 4-1, unfinished

Doubles competition

1. No. 4 Alexandra Schunk/Victoria Weltz (LUW) def. Nora Baertschi/Senka Softic (FSW) 8-5

2. No. 17 Katerina Jiskrova/Magdalena Ekert (LUW) def. Erin Conroy/Ashley Hungerford (FSW) 8-1

3. Alisson Siaci/Eleonora Iannozzi (LUW) def. Veronika Kovacikova/Karolina Stochlova (FSW) 8-3.

Men advance

Host Lynn University shut out visiting Newberry 5-0 in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division II Men’s Tennis Southeast Region Championships on Friday afternoon. The Fighting Knights have not lost a point in region tournament action since 2006.

Lynn (17-5) posted a perfect 3-0 record in doubles to begin the match.

Fourth-ranked Tomas Racak and Lorenzo Cava defeated Daryl Van Vuueren and Jeremy Smith 8-5 in the top position while No. 19 Diego Rodriguez and Julien Carsuzaa beat Lucas Mattos and Maxim Sukharev 8-3 in the second spot.  The LU duo of Alessandro Sarra and Axel Joachim completed the sweep with an 8-2 decision in the third flight.

In singles, the Knights collected a quick pair of points while they were up a set on Newberry (10-8) in every match.  Fourteenth-ranked Carsuzaa blanked Van Vuueren 6-0, 6-0 in the second position for the first point before No. 44 Racak defeated Smith 6-1, 6-1 in the third slot to seal the win.

Unfinished matches included No. 11 Cava up 6-2, 2-0 over Sukharev, Rodriguez leading Mattos 6-4, 1-0 in the fourth spot and Sarra and Joachim matching 6-1, 4-1 leads over Sobrinho and Jurkovic, respectively.