Temple blanks Siena to snap losing streak

Temple Women’s Tennis (5-11, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) blanked Siena College (4-7, 2-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) 7-0 Friday afternoon. The win snapped the Owls’ three game losing streak as they look to get their season turned around. 

KEY MOMENTS

• Temple’s Thamara Kawaratani and Marianthi Christoforidou gained a crucial point in their doubles match, which propelled them to a dominant win.
• Temple’s Maria Martinez and Martyna Mackiewicz had an impressive rally but lost the point in their doubles match, which was a huge turn in their 4-4 draw.
• Temple’s Irmak Ozturk and Nina Andreoni picked up a point on an impressive rally to keep their match alive and they finished strong to cruise to a 6-1 win. 
• Irmak picked up a crucial point against Siena’s Laia Giralt to secure her win.
• Martinez pulled off a massive rally to pick up a point in her dominant performance against Siena’s Madeline De Faber-Schumacher. 

THE NUMBERS

• Christoforidou and Kawaratani combined to take down Andrea Vargas and Zaara Omar by a score of 6-2 to open up doubles play. 
• Ozturk and Andreoni dominated Camilla Bonini and De Faber-Schumacher 6-1 to finish off doubles play.
• Ozturk kicked off singles play with a strong win against Giralt.
• The Owls won all of their singles matches, with just one match needing the third set to determine the winner.

WORDS FROM THE TEAM

“After a tough match we had last week, it’s good to have an easy win,” said Kelly Richter. “We feel better, it was 7-0 so no one lost.”

”It was home and we are always working on these courts,” Ozturk said. “We know how to control and play with winds, it’s teaching us a lot being able to play here.”

WORDS FROM COACH

”We had a couple of tough losses recently, so it’s always good to get a win on the board,” said director of tennis Jeff Brandes. “Part of it is travel, there’s a thing we always talk about called van-lag when you’ve been in the van a couple of hours so it’s a little tough to get going.”

”Every tennis court plays differently, the different speed and bounce, suns at a different angle,” Brandes said. “These are our home courts, we have a comfort level here and it’s nice to play when you’re comfortable.”

ON TAP

Temple will travel to New Jersey to face off against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (9-4, 0-0 Southland Conference) on April 4, at 11 a.m.