The University of Akron Athletics
Tennis To Face Buffalo In MAC First Round
April 23 | Women's Tennis
– The ninth-seeded University of Akron tennis team will
face off against eighth-seeded Northern Illinois on Thursday in the
first round of the Mid-American Conference Championship in Buffalo,
N.Y. The match is scheduled to get underway at noon EDT at Ellicott
Tennis Center on the University at Buffalo campus.
The winner of Thursday's match-up will face top-seeded and
nationally-ranked Western Michigan (15-7, 8-0) on Friday at 10
a.m.
Thursday marks the fourth-consecutive season that the Zips (5-14,
0-8 MAC) and Huskies (3-13, 1-7) have met in the opening round of
the league tournament, with NIU being the victor in each of those.
It will be the third-straight year that NIU and UA are playing as
the eight and nine seeds, respectively.
Northern Illinois' lone win in conference play this season came
against Akron by a count of 4-3 on March 22 in DeKalb, but the
Huskies have dropped six-straight contests since. That was one of
four one-point losses for the Zips this season.
Akron closed out its regular season with a pair of home losses last
weekend, falling 6-1 to Eastern Michigan on Friday and 7-0 to
Toledo on Saturday. The Zips recognized seniors Laura
Hemlepp and Amy Sherlock prior to Saturday's contest and held
their annual awards banquet that evening.
Sherlock compiled a 13-14 record (5-5 in dual play) this season
before suffering an injury to her anterior cruciate ligament during
the week prior to the start of the MAC schedule. She was 4-3 at the
No. 2 singles position and had tallied a 5-2 mark at No. 1 doubles
when playing with junior Tanyaradzwa Gombera.
Despite playing with a jumbled lineup throughout conference
competition, several Akron players achieved milestones throughout
the season.
Freshman Jeremie Benjamin's 20 singles wins makes her the
first Akron player since Irina Strembitsky in 2002-03 to post that
many victories in a season. That number places her eighth on the
school's all-time single-season list.
Benjamin leads the team with 36 combined wins, while Gombera trails
with 33 and freshman Carolina Castro Cota has 32. It is the
first time since the 1998-99 campaign that three Zips have
surpassed the 30-win mark. Coincidentally, that 1998-99 team had
six players with 30 or more wins, led by Lauren Kloner's 45. The
1995-96 team also had six athletes with 30-plus victories.
Benjamin and junior Kerry Langworthy compiled a 4-4 record versus MAC
opponents in doubles play this season, which ties for most
single-season pairs wins in league play in program history.
Players Mentioned
