University of Minnesota Athletics
Sperling and Wiecha Reach Doubles Final at Gopher Invite
9/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Jackie Sperling and Magdalena Wiecha prevailed in a pair of close matches and advanced to the title match of the top doubles flight to lead the University of Minnesota women’s tennis team on the second day of the Gopher Invitational on Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Center.
All of Saturday’s matches were held indoors due to rain. The championship matches will be played on Sunday. Doubles finals will start at 9 a.m. and singles finals will start at approximately 10:30 a.m.
Sperling and Wiecha defeated Iowa’s Kelcie Klockenga and Jessica Young 8-6 in the quarterfinals and then edged LSU’s Hannah Robinson and Whitney Wolf 9-7 in the semifinals. The pair will face the nation’s 11th-ranked doubles tandem, Megan Falcon and Mikayla Hedberg of LSU, in the finals on Sunday. Falcon and Hedberg beat Minnesota’s Alessandra Ferrazzi and Tijana Koprivica 8-1 in the semifinals. Ferrazzi and Koprivica won their quarterfinal match over Nicole Kantor and Nicole Smith of LSU 8-4.
Minnesota’s other doubles team of Peta Forsyth and Liz Tusler won their quarterfinal match over Tessa Lang and Alyssa Palen of Iowa State 9-7 before falling in the semifinals to Jennifer Holmberg and Maria Ring of Nebraska 8-6.
In singles, Ferrazzi lost a hard-fought semifinal match to Falcon, who is ranked 15th in the country. Falcon took a first-set tiebreaker 8-6 and then won the second set 6-3 to advance to the finals of the top singles flight. Also in the bracket, Koprivica lost a three-set match for the second straight day by a 6-2, 4-6, (10-2) score to Madeleine Geiberg of Nebraska.
Tusler won by a 6-0, 6-0 score for the second straight day, beating Caitlin Brannen of South Dakota State in her consolation match. Forsyth reached the semifinals of her singles flight, but lost to Ashley Finnegan of Nebraska 6-2, 6-2 and will play for third place on Sunday.
In addition to their doubles final, Sperling and Wiecha will play each other in a singles consolation match on Sunday after each lost on Saturday. Wiecha fell to Christine Abayan of Air Force 6-4, 3-6, (10-6) and Sperling lost to Marie-Christine Chartier of Iowa State 6-3, 6-3.
Players Mentioned
