University of Minnesota Athletics
Chiarelli and Kazakova Shine at Northwestern
10/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Karina Chiarelli and Elena Kazakova came two points short of a doubles title at the Northwestern women’s tennis Invitational on Sunday, falling in a tiebreaker in the Flight B championship match in Evanston, Ill.
Chiarelli and Kazakova, who won three straight matches to reach the final, lost to South Carolina’s Suzanna Mansour and Ashley Miller 8-6 in the decisive tiebreaker for a 9-8 defeat.
Other top performances for the Gophers came from Tijana Koprivica, who won a pair of matches in the Flight B singles competition. Jackie Sperling had two singles victories in Flight C after beating Oklahoma’s Tara Eckel 6-0, 6-2 in her consolation match on Sunday and Alessandra Ferrazzi and Koprivica won two matches in the Flight A doubles event with an 8-4 consolation win over Dunja Antunovic and Gia McKnight of DePaul.
Chiarelli and Kazakova opened the weekend with victories over Sandra Zmak and Anna Redecsi of DePaul and Brittany Baldy and Kristi Gray of Oklahoma by identical 8-6 scores. They followed with a semifinal win over Zara Harutyunyan and Anna Baronayte of Akron 8-5.
Koprivica began her singles play by rallying for a 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 win over Nicole Kantor of LSU. After a quarterfinal loss, she defeated Katrina Milinkovic of DePaul 6-3, 6-2.
Ferrazzi and Koprivica started their weekend with a 9-8 win over Hannah Robinson and Whitney Wolf of LSU with a 7-4 tiebreaker win. Sperling lost her first match, but came back to beat Nicole Smith of LSU 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the consolation round.
Magdalena Wiecha won her opening match in Flight C singles over Eckel of Oklahoma 6-1, 6-3, but was forced to default her quarterfinal contest. Kazakova won her first singles match of the weekend with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Chandler Kleinpeter of LSU and then lost her next two decisions.
The Gophers will compete again Oct. 23 at the ITA Regional championships in East Lansing, Mich.
Players Mentioned
