Oct. 29, 2006

Tallahassee, Fla. - Lucia Polakova and Valerie Kendrick collected third place titles while four others made it to the fifth place finals in their respected draws over the weekend in the 2006 Seminole Classic in the capital city of Tallahassee, Florida in an event hosted by Florida State University.

Lucia Polakova (Trnava, Slovakia), a hard-serving senior that is expected to be one of the team captain's in the spring, provided the first sparks for the Wildcats as she defeated Claudia Kecht (Florida Atlantic) with scores of 6-4, 7-6 before falling to Lauren Macfarlane of Florida State (1-6, 0-6). Polakova bounced back with a 6-2, 6-2 wins over South Florida's Iciri Rai in the third place finals.

Fellow senior Valerie Kendrick (Winter Haven, Fla.) followed up Polakova's performance with a third place finals victory herself as she knocked off FAMU's Sarah Brinkley (6-4, 6-2) in the quarterfinals before falling in the semifinals of the main draw [Orange Singles] to Florida State's Suzanna Mansour (1-6, 0-6). Kendrick bounced back in the third place finals with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Danielle Simone of Florida Atlantic.

Also playing well with a fifth place finals appearance was Olga Ruislova (Trnava, Slovakia) as she lost to Liz Cruz (South Florida) with scores of 3-6, 3-6. Sophomore sensation Kiara Powell (Boise, Idaho) made it to the 5th place finals before falling to Stetson's Anna Leonenko 3-6, 2-6.

Newcomer Monika Musilova (Prague, Czech Republic) took home the only fifth place finals victory as she fought past North Florida's Florencia Torres 6-4, 6-4. On her way to the finals of the consolation round, Musilova also knocked off Florida Atlantic's Katherine Bartnik, 6-4, 6-2, and lost in the opening main draw [White Singles] to Auburn-Montgomery's Nadia Lysak 2-6, 2-6. Musilova now holds an 11-2 record in the fall, including a 3-3 mark in doubles action with freshman Jeneice Ward (Diego Martin, Trinidad), sister of Wildcat men's player Jerome Ward.

The most exciting doubles action of the weekend came from the combination of Polakova and Kendrick as they upped their record in the fall to 7-3 before falling in the third place finals to the team of Vanessa Sanchez and Ina Durcakova of North Florida, 2-8. Fellow teammates Ruislova and Powell played hard to earn a spot in the fifth place finals before falling 4-8 to Florida State's Nicola Slater and Lauren Macfarlane.

The Wildcats women's team will conclude the fall season on Nov. 10-12 when they travel to Jacksonville for the UNF Invitational. The draws and brackets for that tournament will be announced once the date of that event gets closer. Once again, the University of North Florida will serve as the host for the event.

For more information on this event/tournament and all other MEAC tennis events throughout the fall season, please log on to www.MEACsports.com, or call the Bethune-Cookman College Office of Sports Information at (386) 481-2206.