Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston State
'Jacks Hammer Sam Houston State
3/24/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 24, 2012
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After dropping the first doubles match of the day, Stephen F. Austin rallied to win the next six matches to knock off Sam Houston State, 6-1. The nation's 43rd-ranked team improved to 15-2 (.882) on the season, while remaining perfect in Southland Conference play.
"We got home after a very physical win last night less than 12 hours before today's match," said head coach Patrick Sullivan. "So we knew we needed to get out of the gate quick and the bottom half of the lineup did a great job of putting their opponents away fast and taking pressure off of the top.
"The strength of our team is our depth and that has really shown both this past week, and really during this entire stretch of matches starting with the big win at Tulane to open March," added Sullivan.
After dropping an 8-4 decision at No. 3 doubles, the teams of freshmen Tereza Bekerova and Malena Gordo and senior Alina Shazhko and sophomore Jithmie Jayawickrema picked up victories at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles respectively to hand SFA the doubles point.
SFA held the momentum in singles play picking up victories at Nos. 1, 6, 5 and 4 singles to ice the win before the Bearkats could dent the scoreboard. Freshman Elena Kordolaimi posted an easy 6-1, 6-1 win over SHSU's Imke Jagau at No. 1 singles. Classmate Julia Lorca followed suit with her straight-set win at No. 6 singles, 6-3, 6-1 over the Bearkats' Kayla Stevenson.
The last two matches of the day went to a third-set with SFA splitting the two decisions. Shazhko rallied after dropping the first set to pick up the win, while Jayawickrema battled back to force a super tiebreak, but came up short, 3-6, 6-4, 10-7.
"All eight players on our active roster have seen significant playing time and contributing to our wins," said Sullivan. "Elena played her most complete match of the season and although playing No. 1 as a freshman is tough and unusual to see on a strong team like ours, she is really showing that she deserves to be there. Alina also overcame slow starts all weekend but is in the best shape of her career and showed that by gutting out tough three-setters and going 6-0 this week."
SFA will be back in action Wednesday when they host McNeese State. The match, which is a makeup from one that got rained out earlier this season, will begin at noon from the Schlief Tennis Complex.
-SFA-
