Tennis: WVU Continues Winning Streak
January 31, 2010 08:18 PM | General
January 31, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University tennis team defeated James Madison, 4-3, today following a 5-2 win over Liberty on Friday at the Greenbrier Hotel and Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
The Mountaineers started the weekend with a big win over the Lady Flames after taking the doubles point, then capturing four of six singles points.
WVU’s No. 1 doubles pair, senior Stephanie LaFortune and junior Monique Burton, were defeated, 8-2, after a tough match against Liberty’s Jordan Jenkins and Hannah Fick. The Mountaineers came back to get the doubles point with two victories in the No. 2 and 3 spots when sophomore Veronica Cardenas and freshman Emily Mathis defeated Liberty’s Nadia Solomon-Burgess and Fabiana Gouveia in an 8-3, match, followed by a 9-7, victory by senior Gabriela Blaskovicova and junior Ashley Pilsbury.
The Mountaineers were down 2-1, after losses in the No. 1 and 2 spots of the singles competition, but came back with four-straight wins by Cardenas (6-4, 6-3), Mathis (6-2, 6-2), Pilsbury (6-4, 6-2) and sophomore Kathryn Haught (6-1, 6-1) over the Lady Flames.
“I was happy to see the girls fight through a tough match,” says coach Marc Walters. “It was a good team win for them and I was really proud of their performance.”
The winning-streak continued with today’s 4-3, victory over the Dukes. WVU began the match by sweeping the doubles competition with an 8-4, win in the No. 1 spot, followed by two 8-2, wins by No. 2 Cardenas and Mathis over JMU’s Rebecca Erickson and Megan Douglass, along with Pilsbury and freshman Liv Pettersson’s win in the No. 3 spot against the Duke’s Kristen Nimitz and Michelle Nguyen.
After losing the first three matches of the singles competition in the No. 1, 2 and 5 spots, the Mountaineers came back from a 1-3 deficit by winning three-straight matches to take the title.
No. 3 Cardenas had a big defeat over Erickson in a 7-5, 2-6(6-4), match, followed by Mathis' 6-7(2), 7-6(5), win over Douglass in the No. 4 spot.
“Emily and Veronica had to work hard physically in their matches, but they kept coming back and out-doing their competition which is we’ve been focusing on in practice,” adds Walters.
Pettersson also contributed for the Mountaineers in the No. 6 spot with a tie-breaking 7-6(5), 6-0, defeat over Nimitz.
“Liv showed a real spark today and we had a great day with the freshmen on our team. They are a big use in our line-up,” says Walters. “We are proud to start off the season 3-0, which is the first time in ten years WVU has made that accomplishment.”
The Mountaineers will continue play at Marshall on Feb. 5, at 2 p.m.
