Saint Louis University has a good reason to be proud of its tennis players, and not just for their performance on the court.
The men’s and women’s tennis teams both volunteered at the 2014 United States Tennis Association U.S. Open Wheelchair Championships, held at Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park from Aug. 26 through Aug. 31.
“As always, it was a privilege to work at the U.S. Open Wheelchair Championships,” SLU head coach Jon Zych said. “Our student-athletes were inspired by watching the competition and enjoyed interacting with the players. It means a lot to have the tournament in St. Louis and to have an opportunity to help in any way we can.”
The USTA has been committed to providing opportunities for wheelchair athletes to learn and compete in the sport of tennis since 1998. In fact, they claim to hold the world’s oldest wheelchair tennis tournament.
For the past three years, SLU has been assisting in support of the Championships in St. Louis. The Billikens served as ball persons and assisted in general support of the event: helping athletes get their sports chairs to and from courts, assisting referees and players, and picking up trash after matches.
SLU tennis has had an impressive year so far in its own right as well. The men’s and women’s teams began their season with the Billiken Classic, held at Dwight Davis Tennis Center on Sept. 5-6. Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, and Lewis University were in attendance on the men’s side, while the women faced SIUE, UM-St. Louis, and Illinois State.The tournament was conducted in a round-robin format.
Freshman Brandon Harris led the men’s team with a combined 3-0 record. He earned two wins in the singles tournament, one in Flight 6 and another in Flight 7, and teamed with freshman Charlie Parry for a doubles victory in Flight 3. Freshman Juan Calero and junior Miguel Flores also had a successful weekend, both finishing with a 2-1 record in Flight 4 and 5 singles respectively.
The women’s team also had reason to celebrate. Junior Madison Cook was undefeated for six matches in both singles and doubles; she went 3-0 to win the Flight 5 singles title, while she and sophomore Aspen Cervin took the doubles crown in Flight 1, 3-0.
Junior Kelsey King and senior Brooke Urzendowski also won singles titles, 3-0 in Flight 3 and 2-1 in Flight 4 respectively. Junior Natalia Yacaman and senior Maria Toro also took the Flight 3 doubles title together with a 2-0 record.
The women’s good luck continued Sept. 12-14, at the SIUE Fall Invitational, where they won three singles titles and one doubles. Cervin took home the Flight 1 crown with a 4-0 record. King and Urzendowski also took home singles crowns, each with a 3-1 record in Flight 3 and 4 respectively. On the doubles side, Toro and Yacaman teamed up once again to win the Flight 3 title with a 3-1 record.
The men will head to Edwardsville this upcoming weekend for the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Fall Invitational. After the SIUE Invite, the men travel to Norman, Okla. for the ITA Central Region Championships from Oct. 9-13. Meanwhile, the women don’t play until Oct. 16-20, in the ITA Central Region Championships in Stillwater, Okla.
