DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle women's tennis team suffered its second loss of the 2014 season, falling 6-3 to NCAA I Stetson at the Crotty Tennis Complex on Sunday. The win improved the Hatters record to 3-1 on the year, while the Eagles move to 1-2.
The first doubles match to reach completion was on court two where Carolina Meregalli and Diana Bukajeva rallied from 3-0 deficit to top Anna Götz and
Paola Montero 8-3. Next to them at the third position, Lindsey Cable and Eveline Lepinay put the Hatters up 2-0 with an 8-2 win over
Eva Vilar and
Paula Ortiz Couder.
Down 3-0, ERAU's top-ranked pair of
Kristina Marova and
Hui-I Huang won three of the next four games against Andrea Crespo and MayaBlue Stauffer-MacDowell to close the gap to 4-3 in favor of the visitors. Still trailing by a game (7-6), Marova and Huang held serve then registered a break to move ahead 8-7, but Crespo and Stauffer-McDowell held on their next service game to tie the score and force a tiebreaker. A back-and-forth battle ended with the ERAU tandem pulling out the win with a 7-5 decision in the tiebreaker to make team score 2-1.
Stetson extended its lead to 4-1 as Bukajeva downed Huang 6-3, 6-0 at No. 1 and Meregalli topped Montero by the same score at No. 5. Cari Berry scored the clincher with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Vilar at No. 4 and Crespo made it 6-1 for the Hatters with a 6-1, 6-3 decision at Götz at No. 2.
The Eagles got their singles points in the last two matches off the court. At the sixth spot, Ortiz Couder had a temporary setback when she dropped her second set to Cable 6-4 after taking the first 6-1, but the freshman was able to rally for a 10-6 win in the second to notch her sixth singles victory of the season.
The final match off the court was at the No. 3 position. Once again, Marova had to come from behind and she did so successfully in the first set, holding off Stauffer-McDowell 7-5, but the Hatters' No. 3 player took the second frame 6-3 to force a decisive third set. Marova raced out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but Stauffer-McDowell battled back to knot the score at 6-6. The match was tied two more times until Marova went ahead 9-8 and, following a long cross-court rally, Stauffer-McDowell hit her next shot wide, giving Marova the win.
The Eagles will look to improve their record when they take on Rollins at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Crotty Tennis Complex. Tuesday's contest, originally slated for Feb. 12, was rescheduled due to inclement weather.
