Men's Tennis | 9/13/2014 8:45:00 PM
ABILENE - The Wildcats' toughest opposition at this weekend's season-opening Walmart Open at ACU's Eager Tennis Center was themselves. Because through four men's and women's singles flights and two doubles draws, the Wildcats won five championships and finished as the runner-up on four occasions.
Junior
Nada Marjanovic - a 20-match winner from last spring - won the singles and doubles titles over competition from Dallas Baptist, Tarleton State, the University of the Southwest, and her equally talented teammates.
Marjanovic battled her way past DBU's Natalie Gennisen in the second round, 6-4, 7-5 after receiving a first-round bye, and was then challenge by Wildcat freshman
Whitney Williams in the finals, 5-7, 6-4, 15-13.
Williams came to the Wildcats earlier this summer from Anchorage, Alaska, and South Anchorage High School where she earned a No. 40 national ranking and No. 4 ranking in the USTA Pacific West Region.
Williams' road to the finals included a 6-1, 6-2 decision over Cassandra Wennerstrom of DBU and a 6-4, 7-6 (2) fight with Tarleton's Erika Richarme, who went on to earn third-place honors.
Williams again settled for runner-up status in doubles as she and fellow freshman
Carli Knezevich of Austin-Travis High School fell to Marjanovic and sophomore
Ansley Boarman in the finals, 8-5.
Marjanovic and Boarman - winner of the Flight No. 2 singles title - were nearly eliminated in the semifinals by the DBU tandem of Wennerstrom and Liz Slaughter before ultimately prevailing in the tiebreaker, 8-7 (10-8).
This tournament marked the first time Boarman and Marjanovic were paired in doubles. Marjanovic played all of last spring with then-senior
Emily Conrad, while Boarman competed exclusively in singles.
Boarman won the No. 2 singles title over Maria De Camilo of DBU, 6-0, 7-5, and Knezevich claimed third-place honors here against Slaughter, 6-1, 6-3.
On the men's side, the No. 1 singles title was won by newcomer
Paul Domanski, who doubled up junior
Marco Bensley in the championship match, 6-3, 6-3. A championship-caliber player from New Braunfels High School, Domanski defeated all three of his opponents in straight sets, including Chrys Castro of Southwest, 6-4, 6-3, and Cannon Jones of DBU, 6-2, 6-2.
Wildcat newcomer
Brad Gleason from Broken Arrow, Okla., lost his first-round match in three sets to Jones, but battled back to win the consolation championship behind victories over Castro, 6-3, 6-4 and DBU's Leighton Forshee, 3-6, 6-1, 10-7.
In Flight No. 2 singles, junior
Brandon McCarty finished second to DBU's Zane Nelson, 6-4, 6-4, after winning consecutive 10-point super-tiebreaks in rounds one and two vs. Alfred Mohan and Thomas Mizera of Southwest.
Mizera went on to lose the third-place match to ACU sophomore
Andrew Hutchinson, 6-4, 4-6, 10-4, and was again defeated in the doubles finals vs. champions Bensley and Gleason, 8-3.
Domanski alternated Hutchinson and McCarty as his partners on the doubles court, winning three of four matches to place fifth of 13 pairings.
The Wildcats return to action next week as the men visit New Mexico State and the women head north to Oklahoma.
