Mid-American Conference

MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYER AND DOUBLES TEAM OF THE WEEK
 
MAC Women’s Tennis Singles Player of the Week
Denise Azcui, Western Michigan – Senior, Bloomington, Ind. (Bloomington South HS)
Western Michigan senior co-captain Denise Azcui at No. 2 singles won 7-5, 6-4 over Akron's Miruna Vasilescu, giving Western Michigan a 3-2 advantage, which eventually led to a 4-3 victory on Sunday afternoon. Azcui is an industrial and entrepreneurial management major.
 
Additional Women’s Singles Nominees:
Sophia Geier, Akron – Senior, Burgebrach, Germany (Clavius Gymnasium)
Akron senior Sophia Geier at No. 1 singles went 2-0 in MAC singles plays. At home in the 7-0 sweep of Northern Illinois, the senior captain beat Jovana Peric, 6-0, 1-0 retired injury.  At Western Michigan, Geier swept Melina Lyubomirova, 6-0, 6-3. Overall, Geier stands 25-4 in singles action and 17-1 in spring action, 5-0 in MAC play, all at the No. 1 spot.  She stands second on Akron’s career lists with 102 singles victories and 170 combined singles and doubles wins. Geier is pursuing her MBA.
 
Peyton Gollhofer, Ball State – Senior, Cartersville, Ga. (Laurel Springs Academy)
Ball State senior Peyton Gollhofer at No. 2 singles remained undefeated in MAC dual action last week with her straight set against Buffalo. Gollhofer took down the Bulls Nikoleta Antoniou-Karademitrou, 6-4, 6-0 at the No. 2 position helping the Cardinals' to a 7-0 sweep over the defending MAC Champions. Gollhofer also helped Ball State head coach Max Norris earn his 100th career victory at Ball State with the victory. For the season, Gollhofer owns an overall dual mark of 15-1 and 5-0 in league play.
 
Vanesa Pardo, Bowling Green – Senior, Puertollano, Spain (Ies Fray Andres)
Bowling Green senior Vanesa Pardo at No. 6 singles beat Toledo's Claire Aleck in three sets to clinch the fourth and final point in the conference match to give Bowling Green the victory. Pardo took the first set 6-4 but fell in the second set by the same score. After falling behind 2-0 in the third and final set, Pardo roared back to take a 3-2 advantage. After surrendering three straight points to Aleck, Pardo continued to fight with the match on the line, scoring four straight points to win the set and match for the Falcons. 
 
Sanjana Sudhir, Buffalo – Senior, Thrissur, India (Asian International School)
Buffalo senior Sanjana Sudhir at No. 6 singles came away with a shutout victory in a 7-0 win over Northern Illinois as she defeated Mary Ellen Green, 6-0, 6-0.  Earlier in the week, Sudhir fell just short in her match at Ball State as she lost by identical 7-5 scores in each set.  Sudhir is 11-4 at sixth singles for Buffalo and 15-9 overall.
 
Brindtha Ramasamy, Miami – Freshman, Toronto, Ontario
Miami freshman Brindtha Ramasamy at No. 1 singles went a perfect 2-0 over the weekend, dropping just two games across both matches. She defeated Toledo's Leenabanchong 6-0, 6-1 on Friday as the RedHawks took down the Rockets to improve to 4-1 in the MAC. She followed that up on Saturday with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Dayton's Zargham as Miami blanked the Flyers, 7-0. Ramasamy improves to 12-3 on the year, all at first singles.
 
 
MAC Women’s Tennis Doubles Team of the Week
Polina Radeva, Bowling Green – Senior, Varna, Bulgaria (Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov)
Ayumi Sasaki, Bowling Green – Junior, Montreal, Canada
 
Bowling Green senior Polina Radeva and junior Ayumi Sasaki at No. 2 doubles picked up the only Falcons doubles win against Toledo on Sunday, April 7 topping the Toledo duo of Carlson and Rodrigues by a score of 7-5. After trailing for most of the match, Radeva and Sasaki capitalized on a three-point run to clinch the set after being down 5-4. The run would result in a 7-5 Bowling Green victory, the team's only doubles win of three matches that all went to seven points. 
 
Additional Women’s Doubles Team Nominees:
Rita Pedroso, Akron – Junior, Porto, Portugal (Escola Secundaria Garcia de Orta)
Miruna Vasilescu, Akron – Sophomore, Ulm, Germany (Friedrich-List Schule Ulm)
 
Akron junior Rita Pedroso and sophomore Miruna Vasilescu at No. 1 doubles went 2-0 on the week in MAC play. In the 7-0 sweep of Northern Illinois, the duo beat Jovana Peric and Paula Vehle, 6-1.  At Western Michigan, Pedroso and Vasilescu picked up their third straight MAC win with a 6-3 rout of Katja Fevralec and Kristina Tirapolsky. Overall, Pedroso and Vasilescu stand 20-8 doubles action and 14-6 this spring. Pedroso is an international business major, while Vasilescu is a human resource management major.
 
Audrey Berger, Ball State – Senior, Upper Arlington, Ohio (Upper Arlington HS)
Rebecca Herrington, Ball State – Junior, Alliston, Ontario, Canada (Banting HS)
 
Ball State senior Audrey Berger and junior Rebecca Herrington at No. 2 doubles fought back after being down 3-4 against Buffalo's Pia Schwarz and Arianna Aldrey. Berger and Herrington took the next two games for the 6-4 victory, for the first doubles win of the day against the Bulls. With the win, the Cardinals were able to win the doubles point to take a 1-0 early lead over Buffalo Friday in MAC action. Ball State went on to win the match, 7-0. The twosome helped head coach Max Norris earn his 100th career victory.
 
Chantal Martinez Blanco, Buffalo – Senior, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nikoleta Antoniou-Karademitrou, Buffalo – Freshman, Volos, Greece (4th General Lycium of Volos)
 
Buffalo senior Chantal Martinez Blanco and freshman Nikoleta Antoniou-Karademitrou at No. 1 doubles won their only match with a dominating 6-1 victory over Brodie Walker and Fernanda Naves of Northern Illinois.  Earlier in the week, they were locked in a 4-4 draw at first doubles at Ball State, when doubles play was stopped. They are currently 14-3 in first doubles action and 19-5 overall on the year.
 
Brindtha Ramasamy, Miami – Freshman, Toronto, Ontario
Milana Lysova, Miami – Sophomore, Almaty, Kazakhstan
 
Miami freshman Brindtha Ramasamy and sophomore Milana Lysova at No. 1 doubles went 2-0 for the second straight week. On Friday, the pair defeated Toledo's Leenabanchong/Chishaki 6-4 to clinch a crucial doubles point that helped the RedHawks edge Toledo, 4-3 on the day. They returned Saturday with a quick 6-1 takedown of Dayton's Zargham/Pleiman as the RedHawks shut out the Flyers to improve their winning streak to five straight matches.
 
Melina Lyubomirova, Western Michigan – Senior, Sofia, Bulgaria (Emilian Staneu)
Femke Tjon-A-Joe, Western Michigan – Freshman, Corpus Christi (Flour Bluff HS)
 
Western Michigan senior Melina Lyubomirova and freshman Femke Tjon-A-Joe at No. 2 doubles improved their win streak to five. After Akron opened Sunday's match with a win on court one in doubles, Western Michigan bounced back with wins on courts two and three to secure the doubles point and eventually a 4-3 victory. Lyubomirova and Tjon-A-Joe defeated Akron's Sophia Geier & Anna Uljanov 6-3 to move their record to 9-1 over their last 10 matches.