Wilkes Women's Tennis Looking for Lucky 13 in MAC Freedom Championship Tomorrow
WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Wilkes University women's tennis team welcomes DeSales to the Ralston Athletic Complex on Saturday for the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) Championship at 11:00 a.m. The Colonels are vying for their 13th straight conference title and NCAA tournament appearance.
#1 Wilkes enters the final at 14-4 overall (7-0 MAC Freedom) after beating Manhattanville 5-1 in Wednesday's semifinal.
The Colonels defeated the Bulldogs 8-1 in Center Valley, Pa. on April 13th. Wilkes swept the three doubles points with Jordan Vasarkovy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) and Dasha Yakhnis (Verona, NJ/Verona) breezing to an 8-1 victory at #1 doubles. #2 Francesca Varela-Seri (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg) and Laura Zielinski (Mt. Wolf, PA/Northeastern) had little difficulty in their 8-2 win while Dagney Markle (New Oxford, PA/New Oxford) and Dana Saliyev (Jamison, PA/Central Bucks South) grinded out an 8-6 victory at #3 doubles.
#1 Vasarkovy cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 win as #3 Yakhnis won by scores of 6-2, 6-1. #4 Zielinski took the match of the day in a super breaker 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) while Erin Volutza (Sinking Spring, PA/Lancaster Catholic) won in 6-0, 6-2 fashion in her #5 singles match. #6 Rachel Thomas (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) doubled up her opponent in the first set 6-3 before rolling to a 6-0 second set victory. #2 Varela-Seri lost the only match of the day in an epic super breaker 4-6, 6-2, 0-1 (10-12).
Wilkes is led by Vasarkovy, who was named the MAC Freedom Player of the Year for the third straight season on Friday. The first-team selection held 6-0 records in conference play at #1 singles and #1 doubles with Yakhnis who joined her on the first-team with a 4-0 mark at #3 singles. Varela-Seri completes the trio of first-teamers for the Colonels as she went 5-1 against conference foes at #2 singles while pairing with Zielinski in doubles for a 4-0 record. Zielinski earned second-team honors for going 5-0 in MAC Freedom singles play to addition to her stellar doubles play.
DeSales is paced by Amber Achenbach who earned first-team honors as the Bulldogs #1 singles player but fell to Vasarkovy in the previous meeting. She also teamed up with Kelsey Kazlauskas at #1 doubles in that match. Kristin Kosa was a second-team selection after going 7-0 at #2 singles and won the lone point in the regular season match after losing at #2 doubles.
The winner of the championship match earns the MAC Freedom's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
