For the second time in history, Keiser women's tennis claimed the ITA Cup Doubles Championship as Violet Apisah and Vanja Vidanovic won back-to-back games on the day to claim the title. The girls went 1-2 in singles play and 3-0 in their doubles matches on the day.

The day began with a rematch of the ITA Regional final as Violet Apisah and Katie Visnevscaia would meet in competition for the second time in less than a month. Visnevscaia would take the first set in a 7-3 tiebreaker to take the lead. Apisah bounced back in the second set with a 6-4 win to even the match. After over three hours of action, Visnevscaia would prove to be the better player on the day, winning the third set 6-3. She will now move on to the singles championship to face Justine Lespes of Georgia Gwinnett. Apisah's day would not be done as she took the court with her doubles partner Vanja Vidanovic later that day. The pair would take the first set over Annemart Kleijn and Olivia Scattini, 6-4. The second set would go to a tiebreak but the Seahawks would pull out the win 7-3 to advance to the championship. After a brief delay to begin the championship, Keiser cruised to a 6-3 win in the first set. The second set would belong to the Seahawks as with the ladies leading 5-4 on deuce point, they would get the break to claim the ITA Cup Doubles Championship.




Head Coach Daniel Finn said, "Firstly, I'm proud of both Katie and Violet this morning. What a match that was. Both of them played at an incredibly high level for nearly 3 hours and left it all out there. It was a match that really hurt to watch one of them lose. In the end, Katie played a great match and I'm looking forward to seeing her compete for a championship tomorrow. As for Violet, full credit to her and her resiliency to be able to turn around and go for the doubles. Obviously, it's tough to put everything into a match like she did in singles, both physically and mentally, and turn around and compete in a national semifinal, but she did so in stride today. Then to flip right around and play the championship tonight, I just don't have words for how proud I am of them. It's hard to get the words to say how proud I am of them. Both girls played bravely and continued to stay in the moment. They stayed locked in point by point and ultimately that's what helped them win the national title today. In both matches, they continued to face all kinds of adversity and the way they handled it with a smile and kept pushing is a testimony to them. Time in and time out this afternoon, I continued to watch them literally lean on each other. When one of them would be down. The other one was right there to pick them up. Now the unique part of this event is that while we are very proud and happy about what we accomplished tonight, the girls now advance into the Super Bowl where they will play the winners of NCAA Division III, NCAA Division II, and junior college, so there's not a lot of time to really rest on your laurels but get back to the hotel, rest of the best you can, and go battle again tomorrow against the best of each division. It will be a big challenge, but that's what makes this event so special. Looking forward to watching these two ladies compete against the best small college double teams from all divisions tomorrow."

When asked about the help he got from his assistants, Finn had this to say, "this was definitely a team effort when it came to coaching. When things got difficult and I got pulled off the court to handle some situations, Yassir and Trish, both jumped on the court and did an absolutely phenomenal job helping Violet and Vanja keep calm and focused and ultimately play national championship level tennis."



(1) Violet Apisah
Rd. 16: Def. Olivia Scattini (LSU-A) (6-3, 6-0)
QF: Def. Angel Carney (GGC) (6-0, 6-1)
SF: Lost to Katie Visnevscaia (Keiser) (6-7(3), 6-4, 3-6)

Isabella Perez Flores
Rd. 16: Def. Anastasiia Vorobiova (LWC) (6-2, 6-2)
QF: Lost to No. 4 Teodora Jovic (GGC) (4-6, 6-7(1))
bd: Lost to Victoria Vieten (WCU) (2-6, 5-7)

Katie Visnevscaia
Rd. 16: Def. Hanna Lindeboom (WWU) (6-0, 6-1)
QF: Def. Alizee Ripolles (UNOH) (6-0, 6-1)
SF: Def. (1) Violet Apisah (Keiser) (7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3)
C: Vs. (2) Justine Lespes (GGC)



 
Apisah/Vidanovic
Rd. 16: Def. Igarashi/Kondo (Union) (7-5, 6-3)
QF: Def. (4) Gunfaus/Ruiz Masip (Westcliff) (6-2, 7-6(4))
SF: Def. Kleijn/Scattini (LSU-A) (6-4, 7-6(3))
C: Def. Benjumeda/Talbi (SCAD-ATL) (6-3, 6-4)
 
Perez Flores/Kononovich
Rd. 16: Def. Beer/Savvides (HCC) (5-7, 6-3, 11-9)
QF: Lost to (1) Langa/Wheatley (XULA) (6-4, 4-6, 3-10)
bd: Def. Viljoen/Drukerova (Union) (3-6, 6-1, 10-7)

 

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