2008 Woodie Awards
Tennis sweeps MIAA Championship
Shawn Daugherty
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Sports
On April 27, at Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka, Kan. both the SBU women's and men's team fought their way to the MIAA conference championship title. This marks the first conference title for the women's team and the 14th title for the men.
The Lady Bearcats competed against top seeded Northwest Missouri State University in the morning match.
SBU started the match down 1-2 in the doubles match with the only victory coming from the number two doubles team, consisting of senior Iveta Wolfgramm and sophomore Johanna Olsson. However, things took a turn for the better in the singles matches.
Junior Trish Moceo, Wolfgramm and freshman Jenna Hendrickson would all be victorious in singles matches, giving SBU the lead 4-2. The No. 1 singles would go in favor of Northwest; however, it would be MIAA Athlete of the Week senior Chelsey Janzen that would bring home the final singles victory.
The win completed the match 5-3 in favor of SBU, giving them the first women's conference title in SBU history.
"It feels really great," said Olsson. "I don't think I really understood how big it was from the beginning, but now it's starting to sink in. This team is just so great. During the final we really played and fought for each other, and no one gave up even though we knew it should be tough since we were down 2-1 after the doubles."
The win over Northwest made up for a 6-3 loss SBU suffered in March.
With the pomp and circumstance aside of the girls victory, the minds were cleared, and the men's team took the court.
Southwest Baptist faced off with the two time defending conference champions, Washburn University.
The match started out with a bang with Washburn's duo of Rutger Vliegenberg and Andrew Plum jumping out to a 6-2 lead. Though the match looked over, it was far from it as SBU's lone senior Daniel Prerad and junior Emilio el Alabi rallied back and won the match 10-8.
That was SBU's catalyst. They would go on in singles with victories from sophomore Alex Kacamakis, el Alabi and finally Prerad finished with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Plum.
The victory finished the match with SBU carrying home the MIAA Tournament Title.
"Everyone here works hard," said sophomore Micah AuBuchon. "No one tries to be a star. Our hard work and dedication paid off this year for us."
It is not over yet though. The wins keep on coming.
Due to both teams' conference victories and regional rankings, the first round of the national tournament will be held Friday, May 9 at the John A. Bryant Tennis Center on the SBU campus.
This is the first time in SBU tennis history that a women's team has qualified for the national tournament.
The Lady Bearcats competed against top seeded Northwest Missouri State University in the morning match.
SBU started the match down 1-2 in the doubles match with the only victory coming from the number two doubles team, consisting of senior Iveta Wolfgramm and sophomore Johanna Olsson. However, things took a turn for the better in the singles matches.
Junior Trish Moceo, Wolfgramm and freshman Jenna Hendrickson would all be victorious in singles matches, giving SBU the lead 4-2. The No. 1 singles would go in favor of Northwest; however, it would be MIAA Athlete of the Week senior Chelsey Janzen that would bring home the final singles victory.
The win completed the match 5-3 in favor of SBU, giving them the first women's conference title in SBU history.
"It feels really great," said Olsson. "I don't think I really understood how big it was from the beginning, but now it's starting to sink in. This team is just so great. During the final we really played and fought for each other, and no one gave up even though we knew it should be tough since we were down 2-1 after the doubles."
The win over Northwest made up for a 6-3 loss SBU suffered in March.
With the pomp and circumstance aside of the girls victory, the minds were cleared, and the men's team took the court.
Southwest Baptist faced off with the two time defending conference champions, Washburn University.
The match started out with a bang with Washburn's duo of Rutger Vliegenberg and Andrew Plum jumping out to a 6-2 lead. Though the match looked over, it was far from it as SBU's lone senior Daniel Prerad and junior Emilio el Alabi rallied back and won the match 10-8.
That was SBU's catalyst. They would go on in singles with victories from sophomore Alex Kacamakis, el Alabi and finally Prerad finished with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Plum.
The victory finished the match with SBU carrying home the MIAA Tournament Title.
"Everyone here works hard," said sophomore Micah AuBuchon. "No one tries to be a star. Our hard work and dedication paid off this year for us."
It is not over yet though. The wins keep on coming.
Due to both teams' conference victories and regional rankings, the first round of the national tournament will be held Friday, May 9 at the John A. Bryant Tennis Center on the SBU campus.
This is the first time in SBU tennis history that a women's team has qualified for the national tournament.
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