Stephen F. Austin
ULM Warhawk Invitational
Ladyjacks Begin Fall Season by Taking Part in ULM's Warhawk Invitational
9/24/2017 2:23:00 PM | Women's Tennis
All six Ladyjacks compete in two-day invitational
MONROE, La. - The Stephen F. Austin women's tennis team headed to the University of Louisiana-Monroe where it was one of five teams that took part in the Warhawk Invitational.
SFA joined fellow Southland Conference institutions Nicholls and McNeese along with Louisiana programs Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe that entered student-athletes into the two-day tournament.
In doubles play, the sophomore tandem of Gabi Guilarte and Ladyjack newcomer Nida Kamal fought back to capture a pair of victories in the back draw after starting the invitational with a 6-3 setback against the Nicholls duo of Stephanie Barnett and Lingfeng Gu.
Once in the back draw bracket, SFA's sophomore pair downed Louisiana Tech's pairing of Sonia Chen and Andrea Perez-Lopez by a 6-2 tally and advanced to meet Louisiana-Monroe's tandem of Karolina Snita and Florencia Salerno in the back draw championship. Guilarte and Kamal posted a 6-4 victory over the Warhawks' pairing to claim a 2-1 overall record at the fall event.
Siân Payne and Darinka Tiboldi went 0-2 in doubles action through the two-day tournament, falling 6-1 to Louisiana Tech's team of Nadja Manjon and Claudia Oravcova. SFA's third doubles team, Kaja Ljubic and Armelle Cerdan, dropped a 6-3 decision to McNeese's duo of Stella Carra and Sofia San Jose Moreno 6-3.
In singles action, each of the five Ladyjacks who competed all tallied at least one win. Again, Guilarte excelled in the back draw portion of singles play after dropping a 6-2, 6-3 decision to McNeese's Hannah Brett in her opening match.
From there, Guilarte downed Louisiana Tech's Karla Luz 6-2, 6-3 before moving past Louisiana-Monroe's Florencia Salerno 7-5, 6-0, to wrap up a 2-1 showing in singles action.
Payne opened her singles play with a 7-6, 6-4 triumph over Salerno before dropping a 6-4, 6-2 decision to McNeese's Giovanna Fioretti and a 6-2, 6-2 match to the Warhawks' Snita.
Competing in the flight two singles bracket, Tiboldi took out McNeese's Marija Mastilovic 7-6, 6-4, but dropped a 6-3, 6-0 decision to Louisiana Tech's Sonia Chen. Tiboldi recovered from her loss and captured a 6-2, 7-6 win against Nicholls' Marina Vigil to cap a 2-1 weekend.
Kamal produced a hard-fought 6-2, 2-6, 13-11 win over Nicholls' Chang Wei in the number-three singles bracket before dropping a 6-7, 6-4, 10-8 match against McNeese's Carra. SFA's sophomore suffered another three-set loss in her final singles match of the weekend, falling 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 to Louisiana Tech's Oravcova.
Ljubic lost a three-set match to Louisiana Tech's Oravcova (7-5, 3-6, 10-6) to begin her competition in the number three flight and fell in another three-set decision against Louisiana-Monroe's Teodora Radu (4-6, 7-5, 10-8). Her lone win of the weekend came against Nicholls' Chang Wei who was handed a 6-2, 6-0 loss by the reigning Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year.
SFA's next action of the fall will come from Friday, Oct. 13 through Tuesday, Oct. 17 when the Ladyajcks head to TCU to take part in the ITA Texas Regionals.
-SFA-
Players Mentioned
