Women’s tennis collects 12 wins at meet

Kathryn Sharples beat Michigan State and IPFW. Photo: Steve Woltmann

The women’s tennis team collected eight individual wins and four victories in doubles at the Spartan Invitational Sunday.

Seniors Mariana Palacios and Kathryn Sharples, sophomore Ann-Sophie Hahn and freshman Veronica Lacerda competed for UIC against opponents from Michigan State, Cleveland State, IPFW, Toledo and Wisconsin.

Palacios and Hahn combined in Draw B doubles and came away with wins in their first two matches.  The duo took down IPFW’s Kristine Lindal and Marcy Huck, 8-7 (1), before taking an 8-3 win against Cleveland State’s Mathilde Orange and Kara Sherwood.

The wins led Palacios and Hahn to the championship match, they fell in a close match against Toledo, 9-8 (9).

Sharples and Lacerda competed in Draw C doubles, beating Michigan State’s Christina Brown and Emmy Virkus, 8-2, and IPFW’s Bianca Avram and Sonya Sorokina, 8-3.  In the championship match of their bracket, Sharples and Lacerda couldn’t fend off Cleveland State and lost, 8-5.

In Draw A singles, Palacios fell in three sets in her first match to Toledo’s Pia Rygh, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Sharples dropped a 6-0, 6-3 decision to Michigan State’s Erin Faulkner.  In the west consolation, Palacios suffered a 7-6 (1), 6-3 loss to Cleveland State’s Princess Gbadamosi and Sharples fell to IPFW’s Mayu Sato, 6-4, 6-3.

Palacios and Sharples competed in two more consolation brackets and won both matches.

Palacios defeated IPFW’s Ella Norgren, 6-4, 6-2, and Sharples took out IPFW’s Mila Shustova, 7-5, 7-5, in the south bracket. In the southeast consolation, Palacios came away with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Shustova and Sharples claimed a 6-0, 6-0 win against Norgren.

The Flames were represented in Draw B singles by Hahn, who dropped her first match to Wisconsin’s Anastasia Tipolskaya, 6-3, 6-3. Hahn moved on to the west consolation and won her matches to claim the west title.

Lacerda split her two matches in Draw C singles, falling to Virkus, 6-3, 6-2, and winning in three sets to Michigan State’s Hilary Hager, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.

The Flames are back in action when they takes to the courts at Northwestern in Evanston for the Wildcat Invitational.

Competition is scheduled to begin Friday and last through Sunday.