Blues outplayed Lady 'stangs to reach Gold Medal Final

After having gone undefeated in OUA sessional and crossover play, the Varsity Blues Women’s Tennis team knew that the real season began today at the OUA Championships held at the UWO Tennis Centre in London, Ontario. In semi-finals play, the Blues faced a strong team from University of Western Ontario.

The team of Laura Ozolins and Isabel Jarosz put their 6-0 doubles record on the line on Court #1 against Alison Nash and Julia Creider from Western. The pair got down 0-3 early due to some unforced errors and a few tough deuce points. They got on the board in the fourth game where Ozolins held serve. The teams all held their own until the eighth game. It was 5-2 when Ozolins got broken. With the score 6-2, the Blues knew they had to come up with something special if they wanted to come back and win this crucial match. And they did not disappoint. U of T broke Nash right back to keep the match within reach.

Meanwhile on Court #2, Ekaterina Alchits and Mary Martchouk were also engaged in a very tight match. It was a seesaw battle right down to the end. In the end, the Blues prevailed and won the tiebreaker with ease.

Back to court 1, after the crucial break of service at 2-6, it looked like Ozolins and Jarosz were getting into the match and started to gain momentum. Both teams held serve until 5-7. The Blues needed to break Nash once again to stay in the match and did just that. Jarosz held with ease to force a tiebreaker. After winning the first point on Creider’s service, the Blues held the lead in the match for the first time and never looked back. Jarosz and Ozolins secured the doubles point for the Blues by winning the tiebreaker 7-3. After the match, Jarosz said “I felt butterflies in my stomach” referring to having to make a second serve at 3-6 to stay in the match.

On court 3, the match featuring captain Karina Avramenko and Qiuyan “Chewy” Tian also went to a tiebreaker. The Blues came up on the losing end this time. As they came off the court, their disappointment from the loss was quickly removed by the good news from the adjacent courts. The ladies knew how important the doubles point was and gained tremendous confidence by claiming it.

The singles matches followed immediately on all six courts. Jarosz did not lose a game in her match and finished before the other matches even got to the second set. The Blues needed two more victories from the remaining five matches. Ozolins looked sharp against Nash in the first and won it 6-2. Martchouk also won her first set 6-2. Tian appeared to be struggling with her ankle and dropped the first set. The trainer had taped it up prior to the doubles match. Avramenko and Alchits also dropped their first sets.

Nash started to hit the balls a bit harder and more consistently in the second. Ozolins was getting frustrated and eventually lost the second set 4-6. Meanwhile, good news came from court 3 and court 4 as Alchits battled back to even the match at one set apiece and Martchouk took the second set, 6-4, and the match. The score was 3-1 in the fixture with Avramenko losing a tough, tough match on court 5.

Ozolins started regaining some confidence after a few sweet passing shots zipped by Nash. The third set remained close until Ozolins broke Nash for a 5-3 lead. Ozolins went on to hold her service, sending the U of T Varsity Blues Women’s team to their second consecutive OUA Final, their fifth in the last six years. They will try to do tomorrow what no U of T Women’s team has done since 1984, which is to win gold and bring home the championship banner. Head coach Nabil Tadros was quoted saying to the players “you don’t know how happy I am right now.”

Alchits completed her comeback shortly after Ozolins’ victory. The scoreline was 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Tian was leading in the second set but the coaches agreed to stop the match as Tian wanted to rest her ankle for the Final. The final score of the fixture was 5-2.

The Blues will face either the McGill Martlets or the defending champions York Lions at 3pm on Saturday. Good luck ladies!

- CL | 02 Oct 2004, 04:00

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