Stephen F. Austin
Texas-Arlington
SFA Ousted In First Round By UTA
4/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 24, 2009
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Ladyjack tennis team's season came to an end on Friday, falling to top-seeded UT-Arlington, 4-1, in the first round of the SLC Tournament.
The Mavs earned the top seed with an undefeated regular season that included a 7-0 win over the Ladyjacks earlier in the season, and proved solid once again despite a strong showing from Ladyjack junior Roxana Enica.
Enica was superb in her No. 2 singles match, defeating Daiana Negreanu in straight sets (6-1, 6-1) for the only SFA point of the afternoon. The win was her ninth of the season in singles play and her fifth overall since moving into the team's No. 2 slot.
Outside of that it was all Mavs as the No. 1 seed did not drop a set in either singles or doubles play.
After sweeping through doubles play to snag the match's first point, the Mavs got a pair of points from their No. 5 and No. 6 players to take a 3-0 lead. Nicola Matovivoa took down Jamie Williams in straight sets (6-0, 6-0) in No. 6 singles before Maria Martinez-Romar knocked off Tatiana Smolnikova (6-3, 6-0) in No. 5 singles.
Enica then closed out her match to get the Ladyjacks on the board, but Klara Jagosova was able to finish off Gabriela Gadeva (6-2, 6-2) in No. 3 singles to clinch the match.
Recently named SLC Freshman of the Year Alina Shazkho had her match cut short once the overall match was clinched, but she had come back after dropping the first set of her No. 1 singles match to Monika Hadvigerova to lead the second set 5-4 before it was called. Sanjana Kapur also had her No. 4 singles match called as she was leading 4-3 in the second set after falling 6-3 in the first set to Katarina Micochova.
Overall the Ladyjacks finished 6-16 on the season and qualified for the SLC Tournament for the second consecutive season. The No. 1 singles duo of Shazkho and Enica finished with an 8-3 league record and a 15-7 overall record, while Shazho led the team with 11 singles wins on the year.
-SFA-
