By Mike Gilpatrick–
The women’s tennis team walked away with a pair of wins after hosting Detroit Mercy and Western Kentucky. The Cardinals beat the Titans 5-2 and the Hilltoppers 5-2.
The early match began with the Cards sweeping doubles. Abbie Pahz and Mariana Humberg defeated Anna Davydova and Ksenia Providokhina 6-1. Sena Suswam and Olivia Boesing clinched the point 6-3 against Marie Maitrot and Pauline Van Herck. Jessie Paul and Ariana Rodriguez won 6-3.
Singles competition began with Mariana Humberg defeating Marie Maitrot 6-0, 6-0. Pahz, Aleksandra Mally and Tiffany Huber all won while Suswan and Ariana both fell.
“We need to clean it up and stay focused and disciplined. We stray from our pattern and lose points we shouldn’t and give a little momentum to our opponents and get ourselves into a dogfight situation. We are definitely moving in the right direction,” coach Mark Beckham said.
In the second match, the Cards ground out a victory against Western. Louisville swept doubles competition, going undefeated on the day.
Abbie Pahz notched the first singles win by defeating Cindy Oest 6-1,6-1. Shortly after, Mariana Humberg defeated Natalia De Ugarte 6-1, 6-1. The Cards led 3-0, one point away from sealing the match.
WKU bounced back with Monica Malinen defeating Olivia Boesing 6-4,6-3. Elpida Malamou then defeated Suswam 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
With the score at 3-2, Mally clinched the match for U of L, winning her match 7-6, 6-4. Jessie Paul capped the night by defeating Violetta Shatalova 6-4,0-6, 6-3.
“We didn’t play as well as we could, but at least we were playing our style,” Beckham said. “There’s some scar tissue from the past season where we didn’t have bodies, and the reason we didn’t have bodies cost us to lose a lot of matches. We still lost a lot of matches, and we’re tearing up some scar tissue now.”
File photo / The Louisville Cardinal
