Women’s tennis continues winning ways

The women’s tennis team won for a third straight match today, defeating California University of Pennsylvania 4-3.

The Owls improve to 4-7 (1-2 Atlantic 10 Conference), while the Vulcans fell to 5-6 (1-0 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference).

“I thought we played pretty well,” coach Steve Mauro said. I knew this team was a tough team. They’re one of the best teams in D2. I knew it was going to be tough going in.”

In the top singles flight, junior Alicia Doms won 7-6 (4), 7-5 against junior Lucie Sipkova. Junior Yana Mavrina defeated sophomore Ramona Czakon 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in flight two. That match was the last to finish, making it a winner-take-all match.

“Yana’s a fighter, and she has been since her freshman year,” Mauro said. “That’s one of the players I would always choose to have on the court in that situation. I’m real happy with her.”

Junior Jordan Batey fell freshman Alexandra Borgenhoff 6-3, 6-0 to in the third flight. In flight four, sophomore Rebecca Breland triumphed against sophomore Lucie Rey 6-1, 7-5.

“[Breland’s] backhand was always a problem, so this year we did some special training with her backhand, especially her slice backhand, and it really paid off,” Mauro said. “She just keeps improving and hopefully her confidence continues to grow.”

Junior Carly Bohman lost 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 in the fifth flight to freshman Maxime Colen. In flight six, freshman Minami Okajima defeated freshman Elizabeth Guy 6-0, 6-0.

“We’ve been working hard in practice with her consistency. Even in doubles today she played really well. I wasn’t expecting 6-0, 6-0, but it was a good win.”

“I felt so much better because the cheering was really good,” Okajima said. “People supported me a lot, and it really helped me mentally.”

The men’s tennis team practiced at Legacy this morning, and stayed to cheer on the women after practice ended.

In doubles play, Bohman and Okajima fell to Rey and Sipkova 8-6 in the first flight. In the second flight, Breland and Mavrina lost to Borgenhoff and Czakon 8-4. Doms and Batey defeated Colen and Guy in the third flight 8-2. Normally, Doms and Batey play the top flight and Okajima and Bohman play the third flight.

“We experimented with our doubles lineup a little bit,” Mauro said. “That’s one of the reasons we lost the doubles point.”

Temple is next in action on Wednesday, March 13 at A-10 opponent Duquesne. The match will take place at 5 p.m.

Evan Cross can be reached at evan.cross@temple.edu or on Twitter @EvanCross.