March 24, 2002
The Tigers defeated both St. Louis University and Creighton in strong fashion in St. Louis on Saturday.
In the morning match, the Tigers swept the doubles to take a 1-0 lead into the singles play. Junior Kristina Oshanskaya, and freshmen Katka Sevcikova and Mary Barry all made quick work of their opponents to seal the team match for the Tigers. Once the four points were in hand, the Tigers stopped competition at spots No. 5 and No. 6. At that time, Urska Juric had just split sets with Julie Siemers at the No. 1 position.
"For SLU, Julie has always been tough as nails, and has meant a lot to that program," MU Heac Coach Blake Starkey said. "She's a gritty, smart player, and she gives everyone fits. We'll miss her as an opponent, but I'm glad she's a senior. We obviously have a lot of respect for her. They really wanted to play it out, and that was fine. Urska just had a little more in the tank down the strech and was fortunate to get it in three sets. That was clearly the best match of the day."
The Creighton match was similar as the Tigers swept the doubles to take the early 1-0 lead into singles play. The Tigers then quickly won four singles matches to seal the Tiger victory. Urska's match again was a hard-fought battle, and she was the last to walk off the court.
"When we scheduled this a year ago, we had no idea our basketball team would be in the Elite Eight playing at the exact same time. Our kids are great tennis players, but they are MU students, and big fans too. They have been so excited and caught up in Mizzou's basketball success. The timing was killing them that we had a match at the same time we were playing in the Elite Eight, and there was nothing we could do about it. We played well enough to win, but we were a little distracted. As soon as we won the match, they kept running back and forth from the van to follow the basketball game. Even though we were in St. Louis, it was student support at it's best, and great to watch. I think one of our player's roommates had taped the game, and they were all going to her apartment to watch the whole game as soon as we got back to Columbia."
Mizzou 5, Saint Louis University 0
Doubles
#1 Siemers/O'Handley (SLU) lost to Juric/Jevcikova, 8-5
#2 Zielinksi/Cutler (SLU) lost to Olshanskaya/Ruskova, 8-0
#3 Doyle/Steer (SLU) lost to Barry/Thompson, 8-0
Singles
#1 Julie Siemers lost to Urska Juric 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
#2 Vicki Zielinski lost to Katja Jevcikova 6-0, 6-1
#3 Amy O'Handley lost to Mary Barry 6-4, 6-1
#4 Melissa Cutler lost to Kristina Olshaskaya 6-1, 6-3
#5 Kristen Doyle vs. Lucie Ruskova DNF
#6 Rebecca Steer vs. Caitlin Thompson DNF
Mizzou 5, Creighton 0
Singles
Urska Juric def. Megan Kowal 6-4, 6-2
Katka Sevcikova def. Divya Bala 6-1, 6-1
Mary Barry def. Kim Cavan 6-4, 6-1
Kristina Olshanskaya vs. Deidre Sanders - did not finish
Lucie Ruskova vs. Pam Gerik - did not finish
Caitlin Thompson def. Shannon Whelan 6-0, 6-1