The women’s tennis team bounced back from a Friday loss to defeat the University of Delaware Saturday. The team won five out of its six singles matches in straight sets.
Sophomores Dina Karina (6-3, 5-7, 11-9), Anais Nussaume (7-5, 6-2) and Mariana Bedon (6-2, 6-0) each defeated their opponent in singles play, while freshman Yana Khon (7-5, 6-1) defeated her opponent after a close first set. Freshmen Monet Stuckey-Willis (6-2, 6-2) and Alina Abdurakhimova (6-3, 6-2) cruised in their matches.
The Owls secured the doubles point with victories from Karina and Abdurakhimova (6-1) and Nussaume and senior Rebecca Breland (6-4).
Yesterday against Penn, the women lacked emotion in their actions on the court, a contrast to what coach Steve Mauro saw today.
“Yesterday at Penn, the girls didn’t play with any emotion and it didn’t seem like they wanted to win,” Mauro said. “Today the girls played with emotion … it was a standout win for them.”
Much improved from the prior day, dominant singles play was important for Mauro to see, specifically out of his young freshmen.
“Singles was good today,” Mauro said. “[Yana, Alina and Monet] all had good matches … Monet was solid at No. 5 singles. She was hitting the ball clean and played a smart brand of tennis.”
The doubles play was better Saturday, Mauro said, but his third flight duo of Bedon and junior Minami Okajima struggled.
“Doubles was a little rough in the beginning of the matches, specifically Dina and Alina’s match,” Mauro said. “All around our doubles play was much better than yesterday. Today we were serving better which was key … [Mariana and Minami] struggled in the third flight of doubles today.”
Just like Friday’s match, most matches Saturday were close, but the Owls found a way to get on the right side of the scoreboard.
“Most of the matches were close today,” Karina said. “Unlike yesterday, we came out on top of those matches.”
Dalton Balthaser can be reached at dalton.balthaser@temple.edu or on Twitter @DaltonBalthaser.
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