Women’s tennis team wins once, loses twice over weekend

Dillan Schorfheide, Women's Tennis Reporter

 

For its first three-match weekend of the season, the Eastern women’s tennis team walked away with one win and a loss that was decided by one point.

The Panthers lost their Friday match to Indiana 4-0, after Eastern lost the doubles point and three singles points; the other three singles matches went unfinished.

Saturday, Eastern defeated Bradley 5-2, and Eastern lost to the University of Indianapolis 4-3 on Sunday.

Going into the weekend, sophomore Stella Cliffe, who was named the OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Week last week, said she did not think there is any concern about playing three matches in a row.

“We have our normal routine of practice that we stick to no matter how many days we have between matches,” she said.

She did say it would be a lot and that she thought the team would definitely be tired by Sunday, but that that is what the team trains for.

After Sunday’s match, senior Grace Summers said she thought the team was a little tired by the time Sunday’s match rolled around, but that everyone still came out and gave it their all.

Cliffe and Summers did not finish their singles matches Friday against Indiana, nor did freshman Karla Contreras. Summers and Cliffe lost their doubles match 6-4, and fellow Eastern duo, featuring sophomore Emily Pugachevsky and Contreras, lost 6-1. Freshman Claire Martin and junior Srishti Slaria competed in the one doubles match that went unfinished.

Pugachevsky, Martin and Slaria all lost their singles matches in straight sets.

But after the loss on Friday, Eastern turned things around and traveled to Peoria on Saturday and defeated Bradley, this time starting off by winning the doubles point.

Martin and Slaria lost their close doubles match, 7-6, but the two other Eastern duos that competed Friday picked up the needed wins to secure the doubles point.

Slaria and Pugachevsky lost their singles matches in straight sets, but Cliffe, Summers, and Contreras won their singles matches in straight sets. Martin won her singles point by default.

Then on Sunday, Eastern came within one point of walking away from the weekend with a pair of wins.

Indianapolis took the doubles point after defeating all three Eastern duos, with Martin and Slaria coming the closest to a win, losing 7-5.

In the singles competition, Slaria, Martin and Contreras won their singles matches, but Cliffe, Summers and Pugachevsky lost theirs. Summers came close to winning hers, taking a commanding second-set win 6-1 after losing 7-5 in the first set, but she fell 6-4 in the tiebreaking set.

After the weekend, Eastern is 3-7 on the season. This weekend, the team travels to face Chicago State on Friday and Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Dillan Schorfheide can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]