Box Score Las Cruces, NM — The Chicago State women's tennis team dropped a tightly-contested 4-3 decision to Seattle University Friday afternoon at the NM State Tennis Center in Las Cruces, NM, in the first round of the WAC Tennis Tournament. Trailing 5-4 at No. 1 doubles,
Katarina Drazic and
Kristina Pukhaeva staved off triple match point and came back for a 7-6 victory. Then, with the match team scored tied 3-3, CSU's
Sofiya Sedovich lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and the Redhawks earned the win.
In doubles, the Cougars were working with a thin margin for error, defaulting at No. 3, meaning Seattle U needed just one victory in the two remaining matches to claim the team point.
Susana Andres and
Sofiya Sedovich earned a 7-5 win at No. 2 with No. 1 doubles still on the court. That's when, with Seattle's Jillian Rasmussen and Peggy Rooke leading the Drazic/Pukhaeva duo 5-4, the First Team All-WAC Doubles team came back from triple match point to tie and ultimately win the match and claim the important team point.
"We played very well in both of the doubles points," associate head coach
Wyatt Pauley said. "No. 2 doubles was able to set the tone with a solid win, which helped give us back the momentum on court one. The No. 1 doubles team was able to fight off three match points and come back to force a tiebreaker, which fell in our favor. We did a great job controlling our emotions, which gave us a chance in the pressure moments."
In singles, the Cougars started with a deficit, defaulting at No. 6.
Katarina Dukic lost 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 and Seattle took a 2-1 team lead. Pukhaeva then earned a 6-3, 6-0 victory at No. 1 to knot the score 2-2. Chicago State then took the upperhand when Drazic won at No. 3, 7-5, 6-2, and the Cougars could clinch the team win with a victory in one of the two remaining matches. At that point, Andres lost 6-4, 7-6 at No. 5 leaving the match-deciding contest on the court where, after splitting the first two sets, Seattle's Rooke defeated Sedovich 6-4 in the match-deciding set.
"In singles, we were able to get a couple points and were vying to push two more matches to the third set, but we just came up short," Pauley said. "Overall, our coaching staff was very pleased with the players fight, we just had too big of a hole to climb out of being down 0-1 on the singles courts.
"It was a great season for us with all of the hurdles we had to overcome. I am really proud of all the women and the fight they showed on the court today. The match didn't turn out the way we wanted but we have all summer to prepare and come back stronger than ever."
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