Partly cloudy. High 84F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Valpo Women’s Tennis was able to improve to a perfect 3-0 record thanks to a victory over Grinnell College. The Beacons swept doubles and singles matches to take down their opponent 7-0.

In doubles play, senior standout Olivia Czerwonka has found a new partner in freshman Moira Silva at the No. 1 spot.

“We’ve had three wins under our belt now, so we’re just kind of gelling together and seeing how it’s going…[Silva] has really good hands at the net. She’s so solid. Every ball I’m like she’s not going to get it and there she is. It’s just really good to have a partner you can rely on,” Czerwonka said of her new doubles partner. 

Czerwonka and Silva won their doubles match in a 6-3 victory, the closest doubles match of the day. The victory completed the sweep after the Beacons already secured the doubles point for the day thanks to victories at the No. 2 spot from junior Allison McConnell and senior Amanda Tabanera and the No. 3 spot from freshman Elizabeth Sobieski and senior Demi Jhaveri.

Playing at the college level has been a major adjustment for Silva, a graduate of the Houston Tennis Academy, but she has taken it in stride and is grateful to have Czerwonka playing next to her.

“I respect her so much, she’s an insane player. She’s so feisty and so hard working. I really love to see that in a person and be friends with somebody like that,” Silva said. 

Head Coach Bob Modesto is proud of his group thus far and likes the way his new No. 1 doubles pair has been playing together.

“What’s really good is that neither [Czerwonka or Silva] are going to hurt you. They’re not going to make mistakes that are going to beat themselves up and that’s a big tribute to them,” Modesto said. “It’s a lot easier said than done, you know, a lot of teams will go out there and make mistakes and next thing you know you’ve lost a match. That’s not going to happen with the two of them.”

In addition to their doubles success, Valpo also swept all singles matches in dominant fashion. With a 6-0, 6-1 win, Czerwonka was the first Valpo player to wrap up her match. At No. 6, Sobieski won 6-1, 6-1 and at No. 5 junior Mia Bertino prevailed 6-1, 6-0 to clinch the victory for the Beacons. Tabanera and Jhaveri both came out victorious 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots.

The last singles match to wrap up was Silva at No. 2. The freshman went down early in the first set, dropping it 3-6 against Grinnell College’s Mira Manchanda.

Silva showed her resilience in the second set, bouncing back with a 6-0 win to even the match 1-1. The tie-breaking set was back-and-forth with several long rallies between the two players. With all of her teammates cheering her on, Silva battled to win the last set 10-7 and complete the singles sweep.

Coach Modesto was especially pleased with how Silva has stepped up for the team in her first year.

“She has really been playing well and hitting well. Sometimes you go out there and struggle and it’s like how are you going to react to that struggle? She just really reacted well and she just came through, pulled it out and made some adjustments,” Modesto said. “It was just phenomenal, she’s a phenomenal fighter.”

Up next, Valpo will head to Illinois State University on Sept. 30 for the Illinois State Invite. This will mark their final weekend of competition before the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Individual Championships.

“Everything is working toward that MVC Individual tournament,” Modesto said. “We had great success last year with a championship at the No. 2 [singles] spot and a championship at No. 1 doubles so we want to try to mirror that and we are working hard towards making that happen.”

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