Sept. 22, 2009

Contact Tennis Contact Melanie Cheatham (386) 481-2278 -

Day Two of HBCU Nationals the Men’ s and Women’s team has four players to the quarter finals and sends one player to the semi-finals.

 Sept. 25, 2009

The Wildcats are working hard to stay in the competition.  In the second round of the tournament, freshman Kip Jackson, fell 6-0, 6-2 to Hassan Addas of Xavier University in the “B” flight.

Senior Yannick Jackson played a tough match to Jungho Oh of Hampton University. He was defeated 6-1, 7-6 (5) in a tie- breaker  in the second round of the “B” flight.

Wildcat, Emo Vassilev was also defeated in the second round of the “A” flight by Hampton’s Sung-Kwon Baek with 6-3, 7-5 match score.

Lady Wildcat, Stacey Lopez brought a victory in the second round of the “B” flight. Defeating Kayla Cross of North Carolina A&T with a score of 6-0, 6-2. This victory landed her a spot in the quarterfinals. In next round Lopez faced Alexis Brown of Florida A&M losing the match with a 6-2 ,6-2 result.

In the quarterfinals, Cristian Cruz defeated Prairie- View A&M’s Christopher Jordan in a close and exciting match.  The match was split causing the players to play a tie- breaker. The match concluded 4-6, 6-2,10-5. Cruz advanced his way into the semi-finals where he met opponent Hassan Addas of Xavier University and lost 6-2, 6-2.

Brittany Davis, freshman Lady Wildcat, fell to Carlista Mahommed of Southern University 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the “B” flight. 

Vitor Belucci, sophomore Wildcat, fell short of a victory in the quarterfinals to Alcorn State University’s Pushpendra Rajpurohit with a 6-2, 6-3 result.

Continue to follow the Wildcats for the remainder of the tournament Saturday, and Sunday at www.BC-U athletics.com. The site also contains video highlights, and coach and player interviews of all BCU Wildcat sports.

The men's and women's B-CU tennis teams will compete this weekend at the HBCU National Tournament in Atlanta (Sept. 24-27).

First day women's singles matches - written by Melanie Cheatham in Atlanta

Thursday, September 24, 2009 was the first day of competition at the HBCU National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. With the first round of the singles matches underway, the teams have seen what it takes to carry the championship title back to Daytona Beach.

The Bethune-Cookman Men’s and Women’s tennis teams competed today in conjunction with 13 other teams in the MEAC, SWAC, and one NAIA University. The schools competing in the tournament are Florida A&M, Alabama A& M, Arkansas Pine- Bluff, Alcorn State University, Hampton University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina A&T University, Winston- Salem State University, Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, Fort Valley State University, and Xavier University.

Thursday, September 24, 2009 Women’s Results

Freshman, Brittany Davis (Florence, SC) won her first singles match. She defeated University of Arkansas Pine- Bluff’s  Jerissa Greenard 6-1, 6-3 to start the day. She then faced her second opponent and gained a victory against Maria Ycaza of Hampton University with a match score of 6-0, 6-3.

Junior, Andrea Paez (Bogota, Columbia) had a similar finish, winning her first match of the day. She earned a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Briana Pettiford of Fort Valley State University in the first round.

Junior, Katarina Szaboova, who received a bye into the second round, had an upsetting loss to Megan Wiltz of Southern University. She fell 6-1, 6-2 and will finish the remainder of her singles matches in the back draw.

Freshman, Shereen- Peterson Paul (Ontario, Canada) also fell in the super tie- breaker against Kathryn Curtis of Southern University 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Eva Hankova, a senior wildcat, gained a victory for the lady wildcats defeating Melissa Guerrier of Prairie- View A&M University 6-3, 6-4 in the first round. 

Senior, Jeniece Ward (Diego Martin, Trinidad) saw player Arielle Buchman of Alcorn State University. She fell short of a victory with a score of 6-2, 6-3. Ward experienced a back injury and was retired for the remainder of the tournament.

Lady Wildcat, Reijina Hopkins (Daytona Beach, FL) fell in the first round of the “C” flight to Xavier University’s Collen McArthur 6-0, 6-2.

Bethune-Cookman's women's team opened the season last weekend competing in the Embry-Riddle Tournament. This will be the 2009 season opening event for the Wildcat men's team.

Below is the women's tournament wrap-up from last weekend's Embry-Riddle Tournament:

Written By: Melanie Cheatham, SID Student Intern

The Lady Wildcats tennis team was on fire at the Embry-Riddle Invitational to open the 2009 season (Sept. 18-20).

One of the Lady Wildcat's biggest victories was Friday in the singles bracket with freshman Shereen Peterson- Paul, (Ontario, Canada) posting a 6-0, 6-3 win in the first round of the "Blue" flight over  Amanda Carns of Florida Southern College. Following Peterson-Paul's first collegiate match win, she lost in the next round, 6-1, 6-3 to Lisa Loft of Rollins College.

Senior, Lady Wildcats Jeniece Ward (Diego, Martin, Trinidad) also had an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win over Landyn Scudder of Embry-Riddle in the first round of the "Eagle" flight.  Saturday, Ward suffered a shoulder injury and retired from her second match against Ang of Barry University in the back draw.

Senior, Eva Hankova(Prague, Chez Republic ) lost her first match of the tournament, to Division I singles player Eve Castaing of Jacksonville University in the "Gold" flight, 6-3, 6-4.

Sophomore, Stacey Lopez (Bronx, New York) also competed in the tournament for the Lady Wildcats. She was defeated by Caroline Nilsson an independent player,  6-1, 7-6 (5) in the main draw. Lopez had better results in the back draw where she defeated Jacksonville University's Londovno, 6-2, 6-4. Next round she was also victorious over Yablonskaya of Barry University with a 3-6, 7-6 (3), 10-4, triumph.  Lopez lost in the back draw finals 7-6 (2),6-4, to Embry- Riddle's Stojkovska.

Freshman, Brittany Davis (Florence, South Carolina) fell short in the first round of the "Blue" flight. She was defeated by Embry-Riddle's Josefine Strom 6-1, 6-4. Davis and Lopez, doubles duo, were defeated by Embry- Riddle's Chen and Zoricic 8-5.  Davis was victorious over Amanda Carns of Florida Southern College in the back draw with a 6-3, 6-1 victory. In the quarter finals, Davis lost to Embry- Riddle's Stojkovska, 6-2, 6-1.

Reijina Hopkins, (Daytona Beach, Fla.), junior Lady Wildcat was overwhelmed by Embry-Riddle's Virginia Iwinski, 6-0, 6-0. In the back draw, Hopkins and doubles partner Andrea Paez (Bogota, Colombia) lost 8-6. 

Sophomore, Katarina Szaboova (Komarno, Slovakia ) also lost in the first round of the singles. As a participant in the "Gold" flight, she was beaten by Florida Southern College's Senka Softic, 6-0, 6-3. Szaboova and partner Eva Hankova were defeated in the first round of doubles. The duo then cruised their way through the back draw, winning three straight doubles matches. They beat  Kovacikova/Arguello (Florida Southern College) (8-6), beat Steele/Luthra (Rollins College) (8-1), and in the finals edged Loft/Tkach (Rollins College)  (8-6).

The Lady Wildcats will be playing next September 24- 27 in Atlanta, Georgia in the HBCU Nationals. Bethune-Cookman will be competing to be the new HBCU champions. For the latest news on the Lady Wildcats, log on to b-cuatheltics.com. The site contains video highlights plus coach and player interviews of all BCU Wildcat sports -  see it on - `Cats All-Access.