Sept. 22, 2007
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - After transferring to Kennesaw State from McNeese State and sitting out all of last season, Owls senior Madeleine Hakansson delivered four victories for the Black and Gold in the first two rounds of the UTC/Steve Baras Collegiate Fall Classic Friday at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Hakansson secured straight set victories in both of her day one matches in the "A" singles draw defeating Viviane Marani of Jacksonville State 6-1, 6-4 in the opening round and Tatiana Pozo of Belmont 6-0, 7-5 in the round of 16. She will face off with Alexandra Sitnikova of Eastern Kentucky on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. in the quarterfinals.
Proving that she is equally as good as a teammate as she is alone, Hakansson partnered with Lindsey Whalen to advance to the quarterfinals and a Saturday afternoon match-up in the "B" doubles draw with Jemma Euers and Vera Heimeroth of EKU.
In an interesting turn of events, Hakansson and Whalen took the place of Lipscomb's Caitlin Khouri and Britt Kuertz in the first round and defeated their freshman teammates Agatha Palider and Lindsay Dillon 8-3. The duo then dropped Antonia Nugent and Jessica Orton of UAB 8-6 to advance to the quarterfinals.
"The entire team did a good job of preparing for this tournament and the upcoming season," said head coach Brandon Padgett.
After an excellent opening round in the singles competition, the Owls ran into some tough match-ups in the round of 16 in both the singles and doubles draws.
In the second round of the "B" singles draw, Mercedes Cobos faced poff with the Blazers' second-seeded Nugent. Cobos took the first set 6-3 but couldn't hold on, losing the second set in a tiebreaker 6-7 and the third set 6-1. Palider, who received a first round bye, also fell in the round of 16 in the "B" draw, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Juliana Renesto of JSU.
The Owls also fell in all three of their "C" draw singles matches. After winning their first round matches, Karen Ammann and Jenna Wright fell 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-2 respectively in the round of 16. Whalen received a bye in the first round and couldn't get things going in the singles competition, losing 6-0, 6-2 to Evelian Strijker of UAB.
"We had a tough draw and knew we would run into some hard match-ups as we advanced in this tournament," said Padgett on his team's competition. " I feel that we played well today and gained some valuable match experience that should help us down the line."
Kennesaw State got first round victories out of Ayano Tanaka and Palider (8-5) and Paula Takara and Cobos (8-2) in the "A" doubles draw. Tanaka and Palider fell in the second round to the top-seeded duo of Marlene Chemin and Anne Siljestrom 8-4. Cobos and Takara also ran into a tough duo in the second round, losing 8-3 to the third-seeded team of Claudia Szabo and Shannon Hartmann of Middle Tennessee State.
In the Owls other "B" doubles match, Caroline Page and Ammann were beaten by Samford's pairing of Lindsey Mallory and Taylor Morgan in the round of 16 following a first round bye.
"I think our team showed some good chemistry today," said Padgett. "With five new members on the team, I think that says a lot about the maturity of our women."
The quarterfinals of the singles competition will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday while the doubles competitions will begin at 3 p.m.
