CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Playing their fourth match in six days, the Wichita State women's tennis team was defeated by the 52nd Charlotte 49ers 4-0 at Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex on Sunday afternoon.
The Shockers (10-5) see their five-match win streak end, while Charlotte (13-5) increases their win streak to five matches with the win.
In spite of the loss, Head Coach
Colin Foster was very happy with the progress his group has made across this long road trip.
"Today, was just a tough day the office to be honest," said Foster. "Everyone is competing their tails off and we just couldn't claw our way back into it."
As anticipated, the match opened with a very tight doubles battle. At court one,
Jessica Anzo and
Kristina Kudryavtseva would strike first, winning 6-1 to open doubles play, but
Theodora Chantava and
Giorgia Roselli would be defeated 6-2 at court three, setting up a winner-take-all at court two with
Natsumi Kurahashi and
Xin Tong Wang. Despite the Shocker duo holding a 4-3 lead in the match, the 49er pair would win three straight games to take the doubles point for Charlotte.
"In doubles we had some chances and just didn't quite convert on them," said Foster.
In singles,
Anne Knuettel would be defeated first at court five, 6-0, 6-3, giving Charlotte a 2-0 edge.
Kurahashi would go down next at the top court in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to put the 49ers on the brink of victory.
Wang would go down not long after at court two, 6-1, 7-5, to end the match 4-0 in favor of Charlotte. The loss for Wang was her first loss of the year at the No. 2 singles position and snapped an incredible nine-match long singles win streak that started all the way back on February 2 against Oral Roberts.
"I'm really proud of the progress we've made throughout this season and especially on this long spring break road trip," said Foster. "We've come a pretty long way and are super encouraged to keep getting better and still have some ambitious goals to accomplish this season."
After playing four matches in six days and travelling across the country, the Shockers will get two weeks off, before going back on the road to Memphis, Tennessee for a pair of games against American Athletic Conference foes. The Shockers will play the UAB Blazers on March 30 at 1:00 PM and then will face off against the hometown Tigers at 10:00 AM the next day at Leftwich Tennis Center.
