The women’s tennis team fell behind in the match for the second straight day.
Unlike Wednesday’s match against Cincinnati, however, the Owls were unable to combat the hot start by Tulane and because they couldn’t regain composure, their season came to an end.
Tulane got off to a quick start by winning the first two doubles matches 6-4 and 6-3, respectively. The Green Wave easily secured the doubles point to gain the early advantage.
“Doubles could have gone either way,” coach Steve Mauro said. “We were winning on court one and courts two and three were close. The matches were tight and getting that point could have changed the momentum. I was happy with how the girls played doubles, but I felt that we should have got the doubles point.”
In singles. Tulane controlled all three matches to seal the victory and halt Temple’s seven-match winning streak. Sophomores Dina Karina (6-3, 6-3) and Anais Nussaume (6-2, 6-1) were outmatched leading to straight set losses. Junior Minami Okajima also lost her match with a score of 6-4, 6-2.
“[Tulane] made us hit one more ball,” Mauro said. “The majority of the matches were all close aside from the sixth flight. If you look at the scores, they are pretty close and I think that on another day, we would have had a better chance in this match.”
The freshman trio of Monet Stuckey-Willis, Alina Abdurakhimova and Yana Khon were held scoreless because they didn’t finish their matches due to the match being clinched. The trio has carried the team to this point this season combining for a 36-10 record on the season in singles as well as a combined 30-17 doubles record.
“I felt that since we had a long match yesterday, the girls were exhausted,” senior Rebecca Breland said. “Yesterday, we cheered a lot for our teammates and we pushed each other. Today we didn’t really have the energy that we had in the match against Cincinnati.”
At the season’s end, the women’s tennis team finished with a 19-7 record (1-5 The American). The team’s 19 wins this season are the most in program history for a single season.
Conference opponents gave the Owls troubles this season. They only posted one win this season against conference foes. After coming in as the underdog, the Owls made it past the first round of the conference tournament for the first time since switching to The American from the Atlantic 10 in 2013.
The team will lose Breland and return all other members of the team next season.
Dalton Balthaser can be reached at dalton.balthaser@temple.edu or on Twitter @DaltonBalthaser.
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