Bloomsburg Tennis Looks to Capture PSAC Title

Lindsey Wyckoff

BLOOMSBURG- The Bloomsburg University men's and women's tennis teams will compete at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships on Apr. 21 and 22 at Shippensburg University. The women's team, two-time defending champions, will look for their third consecutive PSAC title, while the men will go for their first PSAC championship since 2003.

Bloomsburg, the top-seeded women's team, is 13-3, 4-0 in the PSAC East, and will take on Slippery Rock in their semi-final match on Friday at 11 a.m. The Huskies defeated Slippery Rock 8-1 in a match on Mar. 16 and lead the all-time series 11-5. In the other semi-final match California will take on Kutztown. The Huskies defeated California 7-2 on Mar. 15 and Kutztown 5-4 on Apr. 12.

Iida Hokkanen

The women's team is led by captains Iida Hokkanen (Helsinki, Finland), who will compete at number one singles, and Lindsey Wyckoff (North Canton, OH/ Hoover), who will be at number four singles. Hokkanen is a two-time All-PSAC selection and is a key member of the Huskies squad. Wyckoff, who has a 14-5 singles record, was named PSAC Player of the Week twice this season. She has won 11 of her last 13 matches with both losses coming against Division I opponents. She has not lost to a Division II opponent since September 17th, when she dropped a match against Clarion University.

Torie Cunningham (Greenlawn, NY/ Harborfields), who will play at number three singles, was also named PSAC Player of the Week this season. For the year, Cunningham is 15-5 and has a 7-2 record at number three singles.

"Going into this weekend, we're excited about our chances of winning another PSAC title," Wyckoff said. "We put in a lot of work in the early months of the season and we're seeing the results of that now. In order to achieve the goals we have set for the conference tournament, everyone's going to have to play as well or better than we've been playing all season. It's that point in the season where everyone needs to step it up a notch."

Dan Gal

The men's team, 3-11, 3-2 in the PSAC, is the number three seed and will take on Millersville at 3 p.m. in their semi-final match on Friday. The Huskies dropped a match to Millersville on Apr. 17, falling 7-2. In the other semi-final match, Slippery Rock will take on Kutztown.

The men's team is led by Sophomore Dan Gal (South Park/ South Park). Gal has played at number one singles all year for the Huskies and has a 6-9 record. Gal picked up one of the Huskies two wins in the Bloomsburg's previous match versus Millersville, defeating Greg Bennett 6-2, 6-0. Other key members for the men's team will be Dan Phillips (Colchester, England) at second singles and Ryan Glubo (Old Bridge/ Old Bridge) at third singles.

The women's championship round will be at 9 a.m. on Saturday and the men's will be at 11 a.m. The consolation rounds will be at 1 p.m. for the women and 3 p.m. for the men.