DES MOINES, Iowa - The Wichita State women's tennis team put the finishing touches on an undefeated regular season in Missouri Valley Conference play Sunday, handing Drake its first home loss of the season with a 6-1 decision at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center.
The Shockers cruised through doubles play, winning each match by an 8-2 score. The Shockers No. 1 tandem of Anna Egorova and Lutfiana Budiharto downed Drake's Veronika Leszayova and Sarah Plowman, while WSU's No. 2 team of Stephanie Dalmacio and Florentina Hanisch downed the Bulldogs' Jessica Aguilera and Jessica Labarte. Torrie Browning and Lenore Lazaroiu completed the Shocker doubles sweep by downing Drake's Kari Sloboth and Gabriela Demos in the No. 3 match.
Wichita State suffered only one hiccup in singles play. Torrie Browning opened singles competition in the No. 3 spot, winning every game against Jessica Labarte for a 6-0, 6-0 sweep. Stephanie Dalmacio followed with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Jessica Aguilera in the No. 4 match, and Florentina Hanisch downed Amanda Aragon in the No. 6 match, 6-4, 6-3 to secure the win for WSU.
With the match already decided, Lutfiana Budiharto defeated Gabriela Demos in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2. The Shockers' only shortfall came in the No. 1 match where Veronika Leszayova defeated WSU's Anna Egorova in three sets, 7-5, 5-7, 10-7, but the match finished on a high note for WSU when Lenore Lazaroiu held off an upset bid from Kari Sloboth in a third-set super-tiebreaker, 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 to win the No. 5 match.
The Shockers will head to Omaha next weekend as the regular season conference champions, and will be the No. 1 seed at the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship, which begins Friday at Omaha's Tranquility Park.
SINGLES:
No. 1 Veronika Leszayova (DU) def. Anna Egorova (WSU), 7-5, 5-7, 10-7
No. 2 Lutfiana Budiharto (WSU) def. Gabriela Demos (DU), 7-5, 6-2
No. 3 Torrie Browning (WSU) def. Jessica Labarte (DU), 6-0, 6-0
No. 4 Stephanie Dalmacio (WSU) def. Jessica Aguilera (DU), 6-0, 6-1
No. 5 Lenore Lazaroiu (WSU) def. Kari Sloboth (DU), 7-5, 5-7, 1-0
No. 6 Florentine Hanisch (WSU) def. Amanda Aragon (DU), 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish (3,4,6,2,1,5)
DOUBLES:
No. 1 Egorova/Budiharto (WSU) def. Leszayova/Sarah Plowman (DU), 8-2
No. 2 Dalmacio/Hanisch (WSU) def. Aguilera/Labarte (DU), 8-2
No. 3 Browning/Lazaroiu (WSU) def. Sloboth/Demos (DU), 8-2
Order of finish (2,3,1)
-Wichita State-
