Iowa men’s, women’s tennis collect some wins

The men’s and women’s tennis teams have much to be optimistic about after the Milwaukee Tennis Classic.

James Geerdes, [email protected]

September 24, 2017

FILE – In this April 23, 2017 file photo, Iowa’s Josh Silverstein attempts to hit the ball during the Iowa-University of North Dakota game at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex. The Hawkeyes defeated the Fighting Hawks, 7-0. (The Daily Iowan/Margaret Kispert, file)

Iowa sent parts of their men’s and women’s squads to the Milwaukee Tennis Classic this past weekend, and they enjoyed a measure of success.

Senior Josh Silverstein and sophomore Kareem Allaf represented the men in Milwaukee, while the women sent freshmen Danielle Burich and Yufei Long, junior Adorabol Huckleby, and senior Montana Crawford. The winners of the tournament would win a wild-card berth in the Oracle National Fall Championships held Nov. 1-5 in Palm Desert, California.

The women’s side of the tournament saw a shaky start, but Long demonstrated promise again in the second tournament of the season.

Following a strong start by the freshman at the Tribe Invitational, Long continued to impress people in Milwaukee. She won her doubles match on Sept. 22 alongside Huckleby against Utah State (8-4). Long also won both of her singles matches that day, beating Wisconin-Milwaukee’s Labina Petrovska (6-1, 6-2) and North Texas’ Tamuna Kutubidze (2-6, 7-6, 6-4).

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Long amazed people on her second day of the tournament, upsetting No. 2 seed Ana Oparenovic of Arkansas (7-5, 4-6, 6-5) in the quarterfinals. Long was finally bested in the semifinals by Wisconsin’s Maryann Rompf (6-2, 6-4).

On the men’s side, the doubles team of Silverstein and Allaf scraped away a win against the doubles team of Luis Heredia Gomez and Alvaro Verdu of Marquette (9-8) on Sept. 21 to start the tournament.

The win propelled the duo into the quarterfinal on Sept. 22.

“It was a great confidence booster for us to win,” Allaf said in a release.

The confidence served the pair well, as they rolled through Day 2 of the tournament, dominating Virginia Tech’s Carlo Donato and Mitch Harper (8-2), advancing them to the semifinals.

In singles, Silverstein came in as the top-seed and showed it in his first match, beating Wisconsin’s Matin Viela (6-2, 6-3). His second singles match of the day brought up some questions, as he fell in the first set to Alex Ribeiro from Virginia Tech. Silverstein bounced back in sets two and three, winning them (6-0, 6-4).

“I was up 5-2 in the first set, and lost complete focus, and ended up dropping that set, 7-5,” Silverstein said in a release. “I refocused and gave him my best game in the next sets, just stayed smart, and it worked out for me.”

Allaf did not have the same singles success as his teammate. In his match against Arkansas’ John Howard-Tripp, he suffered an ankle injury and fell (6-3, 6-2), concluding the second day.

The third day saw a number of Hawkeye losses. Top-ranked Silverstein fell to Minnesota’s Stefan Milicevic (7-5, 6-0) in the quarterfinals while the doubles team of Silverstein and Allaf fell in a long battle against Old Dominion’s Jacob Nicolussi and Michael Weindl (8-6) in the semifinals, but both Hawkeyes kept their heads high.

“Kareem and I competed but just couldn’t quite get it done today,” said Silverstein in a release. “Overall, it was a very good first tournament of the fall, but I expect more out of me and hope to get better results at the All-American Tournament.”