Women’s tennis ends three-match slide
The women’s tennis team snapped a three-match losing streak last weekend, defeating then-66th-ranked Mississippi State University 4-2 at the Downtown Club at the Met. This weekend, the 57th-ranked Owls look to add two more victories to their 3-3 record with back-to-back indoor matches against Purdue University and the University of Kentucky.
Rice faces 41st-ranked Purdue at noon today and 18th-ranked Kentucky at 9 a.m. tomorrow in West Lafayette, Ind.
Purdue enters this weekend coming off wins against DePaul University and Miami University.
“Purdue will be a tough team to play, even though we are similarly ranked,” head coach Roger White said. “They are very competitive and predominantly play indoors during the spring. We’ve been practicing indoors [to compensate]”
Kentucky comes into the weekend on a three-match losing streak. However, all of those losses came at the hands of top-10 teams, including top-ranked Stanford University, eighth-ranked Northwestern University and seventh-ranked Georgia Tech University.
Yet the Wildcats, who are in their first season under head coach Carlos Drada, barely defeated 74th-ranked University of Louisville earlier in the season.
“Kentucky has a new coach, and usually staff changes don’t allow teams to get settled,” White said. “They have come really close to losing matches against teams that are ranked below us, so I think we have a good chance to beat them.”
Sophomore Tiffany Lee started off last weekend’s match with a solid two-set victory against Polina Kokoulina at the No. 4 position. Sophomore Christine Dao added Rice’s second victory, defeating Mississippi State’s Renee Joseph in straight sets at No. 2. At the top spot, senior Blair DiSesa lost her first set but recovered for a three-set win. Senior Medeja Egic dropped her first set 7-6 but came back to clinch her match win and the team victory.
“We were all really excited and hungry to win after our loss against LSU,” Lee said. “So in this match, we used the home court to our advantage and played really well.”
The Owls’ losses came at the third and sixth spots. Freshman Alanna Rodgers lost in three sets, and sophomore Kimberly Patenaude fell in two.
“The potential to sweep in singles play 6-0 was really there,” White said. “We were up 5-3 at the third position but were unable to convert the point. Position six was a very close match as well — it could have gone either way.”
With the outcome decided in singles play, the teams mutually decided to cancel doubles.
DiSesa said the team hopes to have similar success on its road trip this weekend.
“Anything can happen,” DiSesa said. “And I feel like all the girls on the team are excited and know we can get the victory.”
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