WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The Norfolk State women's tennis team fell twice on Sunday at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center, dropping a 6-1 decision to host William & Mary before coming up short against Towson later in the day, 4-2.
NSU got all three of its points from freshmen, as
Laura Ruiz,
Andrea Barcenas and
Lydia Oviedo each won a singles match during the day. The Spartans, however, saw their overall record drop to 1-3 on the year.
Oviedo secured the lone point against the host Tribe in a late morning start, defeating Shruti Srinivasan at the No. 6 position. She won the first set, 6-3, but Srinivasan came back to win the second set, 7-6, including 7-5 in the tiebreaker. Oviedo, however, won the third-set tiebreaker 10-5.
Barcenas nearly had the victory at the No. 5 position, winning the second set, 6-4, after dropping the first set, 7-5, to Raffaela Alhach. Barcenas then came up on the wrong end of a 10-7 third-set tiebreaker score.
William & Mary (1-3) had a much easier time at the top four positions in the lineup. Jill van den Dungen and Vitoria Okuyama swept at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, 6-0, 6-0, over Spartan seniors
Paula Fortuno and
Zoe Fraser, respectively.
Lisa Fukutoku (6-1, 6-0) and Elisa Van Meeteren (6-0, 6-1) won at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively. Fukutoku defeated senior
Bruna Goncalves, and Van Meeteren downed Ruiz.
Fraser and Goncalves won a pair of games but lost their No. 2 doubles match, 6-2, to van den Dungen and Alhach. Fortuno and Ruiz at the No. 1 position, and Oviedo and Barcenas at the No. 3 spot, both fell 6-0 to the William & Mary tandems of Mila Saric/Okuyama and Alisia Manolescu/Van Meeteren, respectively.
"Today was a challenging day for us," said head coach
Larry Holmes. "I am pleased with Lydia getting a singles point for us. William and Mary is a good team and they showed it today. The experience from this match will serve as a teaching lesson for us to get better."
Ruiz and Barcenas won their singles matches in a late afternoon contest against Towson (2-5). Ruiz topped Lauryn Jacobs 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 4 position, and Barcenas earned a 6-4, 6-4 win at the No. 5 spot.
Oviedo came close to winning a second time on the day, taking the first set at the No. 6 position over Sarah Pospischill, 6-2. But her Towson opponent came back to win 6-2, 6-1 in the next two sets.
Fraser lost to Amelia Lawson 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 2 slot, and Goncalves fell to Alexa Martinez 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 3 position. Fortuno was in a tight battle at the top spot, as Themis Haliou was ahead 7-5, 6-5 when the match was abandoned.
In doubles, Haliou and Martinez won 6-2 over Fraser and Goncalves at the No. 1 position, and Lawson and Jacobs were victorious by that same score at the second position over Ruiz and Fortuno.
Kosanovic and Assenmacher swept Barcenas and Oviedo at the No. 3 slot, 6-0.
"The match could have gone either way. I love how we fought and competed in singles against Towson," said Holmes. "The three freshmen grew in my eyes today with the way they fought and overcame adversity. Paula was on the brink of going to a second-set tiebreaker before the match was decided. I love the progress from our team and the improvement we are making."
NSU will head to Christopher Newport next Friday and to Richmond next Sunday.
