Weekend good for Ospreys

Friday, October 12

Jacksonville, Fla.

All Day

University of North Florida

UNF Invite Day 1

Ina Durcakova

10/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

UNF Fall Invitational produces multiple winners for Ospreys

Oct. 15, 2007

Complete Results

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida men's and women's tennis teams enjoyed a strong three days of competition at the second-annual UNF Fall Invitational over the weekend, with UNF's Ina Durcakova winning the B flight women's singles and the UNF men's doubles tandem of Yuiti Lopes and Andres Monje doing the same for the Ospreys in the men's C flight.

In addition, Vanessa Sanchez and Carolina de Melo won their respective consolation singles draws, while male counterparts Ben Smith and Andres Monje advanced to the finals in their singles consolation competitions. UNF's Eduardo Pereira and Lopes each advanced to their main draw semifinals in singles, while the Lady Ospreys placed teams in the semifinals of all three doubles flights -- Maria Melihova and Vanessa Sanchez (B flight), Victoria Krook and Robin Rogers (C flight) and Durcakova and Natalia Sanchez (A flight), who eventually lost in the finals.

Overall, it was a great weekend for the 19 teams that participated in the event, according to UNF head coach Igal Buberman.

"Both (assistant coach Rodrigo Puebla) and I are very satisfied with the event," Buberman said. "There was a great atmosphere and a high level of tennis throughout the weekend. Both teams had a very good tournament. We feel that we started a little bit slow and that put some of our players in the consolation draw, but it was clear that as they accumulated some matches, the players started finding their game and several ended up winning the consolation rounds."

In women's singles, Troy's Annabelle Bares won the A flight, with Durcakova winning the B flight competition and Jacksonville University's Lina Xu taking the C flight title on the final day over Samford's Lindsey Reidenbach. In women's doubles action, Troy's Leonie Guijt and Bares knocked off UNF's Durcakova and Sanchez 8-4 in the A flight finals on Sunday, while Samford's Lindsey Mallory and Taylor Morgan won the B flight and JU's Xu and Juliana Umeki went home winners in the flight C final.

On the men's side, singles winners were Georgia Southern's Emmanuel Nkoueleue (A flight), Florida Atlantic's Corey Smith (B flight) and FAU's Daniel Vardag (C flight). In doubles, FAU's Marc Abdelnour and Joe Cadogan (A flight), FAU's Eddie Majcher and Karol Szmurlo (B flight) and UNF's Lopes and Mone took home trophies.

"We would like to particularly congratulate Ina, Andres and Yuiti for winning their flights," Buberman said. "This is a great motivation for our kids, who have been putting so much time and effort in -- on and off the court. We would finally like to thank Carrabba's for catering our banquet and the Comfort Inn Oceanfront (and Jamie Mann) for sponsoring our tournament and providing the banquet space."

The UNF men's tennis team has two fall tournaments remaining -- at the UCF Invite Oct. 26-28 and at the Florida State Invitational Nov. 2-4. The UNF women will not return to action until Feb. 2 when their dual season begins at Bethune-Cookman.