By Aaron Williams–

The University of Louisville Cardinals’ women’s tennis team completed their three-game home stand on Saturday afternoon with a 7-0 sweep over Furman University.

The Cardinals opened the match by claiming the doubles point with efficient play from all competing pairs. At No. 1, senior-freshman duo Amelia Harris and Manuela Velasquez defeated Furman’s Lauren Kline and Alex Moreno 8-6 while Cardinal sophomores Julia Fellerhoff and Rebecca Shine defeated Margaret Boyette and Katherine Oudin 8-4. At No. 3 junior Mandy Brown and senior Sarah Miller hung on to defeat Michele Stanford and Amanda Murray 9-7.

“I’ve been preaching to this team that they have it within them to beat really good teams and we’ve been coming up short, but we got one today,” said Louisville head coach Mark Beckham. “Not only did we get one, we won convincingly, 7-0.”

Sophomore Julia Fellerhoff led Louisville in singles play. It was the first time the sophomore had played a singles match since her injury, although she had been practicing with the team and played a doubles match in the team’s loss to Purdue.

“I was just trying to take it easy in the beginning and get off to a good start and just be positive because I knew I wasn’t going to be perfect coming back for the first time,” said Fellerhoff, of her approach to the match.

Fellerhoff faced Furman’s Lauren Kline in the No. 1 singles match and took the first set 6-2 before clenching the match with a 6-3 victory in the second set.

“With Julia, she’s incredible because her mental is so good. I really didn’t expect her to play as well as she played today. Lauren Kline is a very, very good tennis player and I was expecting, if Julia did win, it was going to be a really tight deal, but Julia played great tennis and won pretty convincingly. I’ve coached a long time, and there’s very few that I’ve had like her,” said Beckham.

In the No. 2 singles match, Louisville sophomore Rebecca Shine bested Furman sophomore Katherine Oudin 6-5, 6-4. The No. 3 match-up of Cards senior Mandy Brown versus Paladins junior Michele Stanford proved to be particularly grueling. Brown took the first set 6-1 but had to battle her way back into the match after falling 6-7 in the second set. Brown went on to win the tiebreaker set 10-6.

The Cardinals also earned scoring points from talented freshman Manuela Velasquez who defeated Paladins sophomore Margaret Boyette 6-1, 6-1. Louisville senior Sarah Miller won the No. 5 singles match by a score of 6-2, 6-1 against Furman freshman foe Alex Moreno.

The Cardinals will now head back out on the road to battle Akron on Feb. 17 and Bowling Green on Feb. 18.

“I’m really excited,” said Mandy Brown of the Akron match. “We had a really close match with them last year, which they took us out, so it’s time to prove to them that we’re the better team.”

[email protected]
Photo: Eric Voet/The Louisville Cardinal