The Falcons were able to capture four championships once all was said and done at the BGSU Invitational, Saturday afternoon.
The team combined to win two singles and two doubles championship, and came away with the most overall championships as a team.
“It helped that we were at home, having home-court advantage, and that at the top of the line-up we had already played a tournament before and got those matches in,” said Head Coach Penny Dean. “But we just have competitors and fighters on our team that are going to stay out there until they win.”
BG was able to post a combined overall record of 21-7, going 11-6 in singles play and 10-1 in doubles play.
Juniors Emily Reuland and Nikki Chiricosta were both able to win singles and doubles championships, teaming up in doubles play for the top flight. While senior Mary Hill and freshman Katie Brozovich were able to win the fourth flight doubles championship.
In the top singles flight, Reuland pulled out a close match that ended in a superset tiebreaker. Reuland split a pair of sets with Xavier’s Alexandra Brinker, winning the first set 6-2, but falling in the second set 6-3 and eventually winning the tiebreaker 10-5.
“A lot of times I might give a player a little bit of strategy, but with Emily I really focused on the last four games of her second set,” Dean said. “We made up our minds that in the tiebreaker, Emily was going to hit all spin serves to Brinker’s back-hand and during points she was going to play Brinker’s back-hand until she had a good fore-hand, then use her forehand angle shot cross court. And Emily executed it beautifully and it worked great.”
Reuland now has a perfect 18-0 career record at the BGSU Invitational. She has been able to win a singles and doubles championship in each of the past three years.
Chiricosta, who won a doubles title with Reuland, also won a singles championship winning in straight sets against Cincinnati’s Ashleigh Witte. Chiricosta now holds a 16-2 career record at the BGSU Invitational. As a freshman, she won a doubles title, then as a sophomore won a singles titles and now as a junior she was able to win both.
“It means a lot to me to win both championships,” Chiricosta said. “Not only does it feel great to win in front of our home crowd but I saw a lot of the competitors that we will be facing in our spring season so it was good to be able to beat some of my eventual competition.”
With the championship in doubles for Hill and Brozovich, Hill has now won her second doubles title in her three years as a Falcon.
Senior Jade Johnson and freshman Drew Fillis advanced to the third flight doubles final, but lost to the Xavier duo of Alley Westling and Lizzie Oosterbaan, 8-6. In the sixth flight singles championship senior Katie Grubb lost both sets, 6-3, to IPFW’s Mila Shustova.
The Falcons are idle for the next couple weeks until they travel to Toledo for the Rocket Invitational on October 12-13.
