Spartans Win Six Flights At The ETSU Fall Challenge
9/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 21, 2008
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Senior Anna Novo (Caracas, Venezuela/El-Angel) and sophomore Emilia Milovanovic (Paris, France/CNED) teamed up to not only win the third doubles tournament title in their two years together on Sunday at the ETSU Fall Challenge, but the pair each also claimed three-set victories in the finals of their respective singles brackets. The pair were joined by two singles' bracket and one doubles bracket winners on the men's side in junior Arnaldo Lovera (Caracas, Venezuela) and sophomore Nico Ospina (Bogota, Colombia/S.E. de Manizales). Ospina teamed with senior Leandro Osorio (Quillota, Chile/Subercaseaux) to win the A doubles flight.
Novo, playing in the top-seeded Gold bracket, gritted out a three-set, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Radford's Petra Drajevic in the finals of the Gold bracket to win the third singles tournament championship of her career on Sunday morning. She downed Western Carolina's Sarah Brinkley, 6-0, 1-0, retired, in the quarterfinals and then added a 6-3, 7-5 win over Mia Drobnjak on Saturday. The win on Sunday gives her 69 singles wins in her career, just four shy of the school record for singles wins set by Diana Martinez from 2003-07.
Milovanovic wrapped up the first singles tournament title of her career on Sunday by taking a three-set, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 win over Radford's Ivana Tomaic for the Blue bracket title. The Blue bracket was the second-seeded singles flight. Milovanovic won her opening match against Carson-Newman's Amanda Bartlett, 6-4, 4-6 (10-8) in the quarterfinals. She then defeated ETSU's Vita Moskaliova in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-2 to lead to her first appearance in a collegiate tournament championship.
In doubles play, the duo of Novo and Milovanovic defeated the team of Tomaic and Mirna Matic from Radford, 8-6, to reach the finals, where they downed ETSU's Whitney Trotter and Andra Voinea, 8-2. Novo and Milovanovic started the tournament with an 8-3 win in the quarterfinals against Appalachian State's Olivia Stannard and Blakeley Bean in the quarterfinals.
On the men's side, Lovera won the top-flighted men's bracket, the Gold bracket, as he posted a 6-0, 6-2 win over Lincoln Memorial's Hannes Ganss. Lovera started Sunday by taking a 6-4, 7-6 decision against ETSU's Jeremy Bonnevalle. He started the tournament with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jonas Brobeck on Saturday.
Ospina won the blue bracket on the men's side, as he took a three-set win in the finals against UNC Asheville's Nicolai Nonnebroich. He started the day with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Matt Stanley in the semifinals and won his quarterfinals match on Saturday, 6-2, 6-3, against Giuseppe Schwarz of Carson-Newman College.
Osorio and Ospina took the `A' doubles flight with an 8-3 win over Lincoln Memorial's Ganss and Bastian Guenther. On Saturday, the duo beat Jonsson and George, 8-4 to start their tournament and then downed an ETSU duo of Jason Ramski and Bonnevalle, 8-4.
In singles play, Osorio fell to Ganss in the semifinals, 6-2, 6-2.
Senior Vivian Neuenschwander (Arequipa, Peru/Max-Uhle) won her third-place match in the Brown bracket against ETSU's Whitney Trotter, 6-4, 6-4. She also reached the finals of the A2 doubles bracket, playing with freshman Cynthia Lazaro, who was playing unattached at the tournament.
The Spartans get back into action in two weeks at the Wofford Fall Challenge, starting on Friday, Oct. 3.
