Cleveland State's van der Vloet, UIC's Knoppe Collect Horizon League Tennis Weekly Honors

INDIANAPOLIS –Cleveland State junior Jorg van der Vloet (Waalre, The Netherlands) is the Horizon League men’s tennis Player of the Week, while UIC senior Jana Knoppe (Ihringen, Germany) is the Horizon League women’s tennis Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 27-Feb. 2.

van der Vloet led the Vikings on the court in dual matches against No. 70 Buffalo and Penn State on the road Saturday and Sunday. Cleveland State lost a close match against Buffalo 4-3 and fell at Penn State 6-1.

At No. 1 singles, van der Vloet won in straight-sets against Buffalo’s Damien David 6-4, 6-1 but fell in his doubles match with teammate Matt Ford 6-3. The next day at Penn State, the duo of van der Vloet and Ford picked up the lone doubles win for the Vikings defeating the Nittany Lions’ Matt Barry and Alex Fennell 6-4. In singles play, van der Vloet came up short at No. 1 singles against Leonard Stakhovsky 6-0, 6-4.

Knoppe led the Flames with the best record through three matches against Akron, ASA College and No. 74 DePaul. UIC came up short to Akron 4-3 Friday, defeated ASA College Saturday 5-2 but finished out weekend play falling to DePaul 7-0.

Knoppe went undefeated in singles and doubles play against Akron and ASA College. At No. 5 singles, she defeated Karolina Maksimava of Akron in straight-sets 6-4, 6-0. The duo of Knoppe and teammate Kathryn Sharples won 6-1 over Akron’s Maksimava and Caroline Harpaintner at No. 2 doubles. In the dual match against ASA College, Knoppe won in straight-sets at No. 4 singles over Danielle Winter 6-0, 6-2. With teammate Sharples at No. 2 doubles, the pair defeated ASA College’s Daniela Vanko and Diana Perez 6-3.

The Cleveland State men’s team is back on the court Friday, Feb. 7 taking on Binghamton and travels to St. Bonaventure the following day to round out weekend play. The UIC women’s team takes the road traveling to Ohio to face Toledo Saturday, Feb. 8 and Bowling Green Sunday, Feb. 9.

Top Men’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Dave Bacalla, Valparaiso (Fr.): Defeated Butler’s No. 2 singles player 6-1, 6-4.
Leopold Gomez Islinger, Green Bay (So.): Defeated Santiago Munoz 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 singles against No. 63 Arkansas.
Rafael Orantes, Detroit (So.): Totaled three wins on the week, including 2-1 at No. 4 singles. His win against Southern Illinois clinched a Titan victory for the second-straight week.
Max Schmerin, Youngstown State (Sr.): Won at No. 4 singles 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 against Toledo. Also won his doubles match with teammate Silviu Mistreanu 6-3.

Top Women’s Tennis Players of the Week:
Alex Bush, Cleveland State (Sr.): Lone Viking to pick up a singles win on the weekend and also collected a doubles win against Ball State, going 2-0 on the weekend.
Viktoria Laskutova, Detroit (Fr.): Went 2-0 in match against Butler with wins at No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles.
Margarita Sadovnikova, Youngstown State (Sr.): Went 1-1 over the week while helping lead the Penguins to their first win of the spring at Dayton.

Men’s Tennis Player of the Week:
Jan. 20: Silviu Mistreanu, Youngstown State
Jan. 27: Jorg van der Vloet, Cleveland State

Women’s Tennis Player of the Week:
Jan. 13: Lauren Smith, Wright State
Jan. 20: Nino Sujashvili, Detroit
Jan. 27: Jana Knoppe, UIC