Not one of Eastern’s women tennis players competed in the championship match of the Eastern Illinois Invitational for flight A of the singles group, but head coach Brian Holzegrafe is not concerned.

A championship match wasn’t even played. Instead of seeing two of his players battle it out for the title, he awarded both Becky Brunner and Sarah Freeman as joint champions.

Holzegrafe said he was pleased with the play from his two veteran leaders, each of whom fought through their side to reach the final.

Not only did the pair take a share of the singles berth, but they also teamed up to take the doubles title. In order to do this, they fought off teams from Chicago State, Bradley and Indiana University Purdue at Fort Wayne.

Brunner, an All-Ohio Valley Conference team member last season, was said to have one of her finest showings of her career, Holzegrafe noted.

“Becky came out and she was phenomenal,” Holzegrafe said. “She played the best tennis I’ve seen her play, and for the the first tournament of the year, that’s kind of crazy.”

Overall, Holzegrafe was excited to see what he has for the future as he saw a complete team effort. He also applauded the effort of the other three teams in the competition.

“Everybody did something for us this weekend,” Holzegrafe said. “It’s really a good start and even a better tournament than we expected. Every team had solid players on their team. It was really a good tournament.”

The women’s team competes next on Sept. 26-27 at the Indiana State Invitational. The men’s squad gets its first action Sept. 19-20 at home in their own invitational.