WICHITA, Kan. – No. 55 Wichita State defeated Louisiana Tech by a score of 5-2 in what was both teams' opening dual-match of the 2015 season on Friday at the Wichita Country Club in Wichita. As the Shockers are now 1-0, Louisiana Tech falls to 0-1.
Doubles Play
No. 55 WSU's Alecks Trifunovic/Luca Pump got the Shockers their first win in doubles play after defeating the Louisiana Tech doubles team of Taly Merker/Manoela Chiacchio by a score of 6-3 at No. 3 doubles. At No. 1 doubles, Rebecca Pedrazzi/Lucy Kovalova earned the Shockers the doubles point after taking down Jazmin Britos/Alexandra Starkova 6-2.
Singles Play
Abby Stevens gave the Shockers a 2-0 dual-match lead at No. 3 singles when she defeated Marta Sramkova 6-1, 6-2. Kovalova then pushed the Shocker lead to 3-0 after a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles. Giulia Guidetti clinched the Shockers' first dual-match victory after winning 6-0, 7-6 (5) over Chiacchio at No. 5 singles.
Louisiana Tech then earned two points in a row to close the Shocker lead to 4-2. Starkova gave Louisiana Tech their first point of the match at No. 1 singles after beating Pedrazzi 7-5, 6-2, and then Britos defeated Gabriela Porubin 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 (third set tiebreaker).
Trifunovic won the final singles match of the day when she beat Taly Merker 6-2, 6-2 to provide the Shockers with their 5-2 win.
Head women's tennis coach Colin Foster was happy with the Shockers' start to the dual-match season.
“It was certainly a good start to the season,” Foster said. “They have a good team and we knew they were especially strong at the top of the lineup and that proved to be true. We rose to the challenge and even in the spots we came up short, we made them earn their points. Tomorrow will be a good test against a nationally ranked team.”
No. 55 Wichita State's next dual-match will be their first on the road when they travel to No. 54 Arkansas on Saturday, as the first serve will take place at 11 a.m. inside the Billingsley Tennis Center. Live stats will be available at this link and also on the schedule page.
-WICHITA STATE-
