Michael Shipma
Sports Editor
The Troy women’s tennis team got off to a rough start to the spring 2017 schedule, losing at Virginia Tech 2-5 and at ETSU 3-4.
The Trojans’ seven-player roster features just one senior and will be seeking to gain experience and wins going forward. Part of the future of the women’s team is junior Nancy Karaky, one of four juniors on the team and winner of both her matches in Troy’s first contest of the spring season against the Hokies of Virginia Tech.
Karaky defeated VT’s Carolina Daxhelet following an injury to Daxhelet, and also won her doubles match with teammate Alicia Rodriguez by a score of 6-2.
While the injury sealed Karaky’s singles win over Daxhalet, Karaky was deadlocked at 6-6 in the first set before the injury, giving her a win over the No. 47 player in the nation.
Also winning in doubles play for the Trojans was the duo of Hannah Seizer and Luisa Ferrauti, who took down the Hokies’ Nancy Ghanem and McKenzie Collins via a 6-3 decision.
Sanae Ohta and Efriliya Herlina were the only Trojan doubles pair to lose their match, falling 7-5 to Virginia Tech’s Katherine Butler and Francesca Fusinato.
In singles play, Karaky was the only Trojan who didn’t lose. The other five singles matches were all losses for those wearing cardinal and black, keeping Troy from upsetting a tough ACC opponent on the road in Blacksburg, Virginia.
“The girls had a good match, especially winning doubles point today,” Troy Head Coach Rawia Elsisi said. “It was a good start for the season against a strong ACC team like Virginia Tech being top-30 program in country.”
Troy then capped off its first weekend of dual matches of the spring season against the Buccaneers of East Tennessee State.
Ferrauti and Seizer picked up the lone win for the Trojans in doubles matches, topping the Bucs’ Jayde Viccars and Melissa Esguerra in a 6-3 decision. In the other two doubles matches, the Troy tandems fell flat.
Singles play was a much different story as the six matches played were split right down the middle. Rodriguez won her match with a pair of 6-1 wins, Ferrauti won her match in three hard-fought sets and Herlina cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 win her match.
Karaky, Seizer and Ohta all fell in their respective singles matches, with all of them being close. Karaky, who picked up two wins against Virginia Tech, was narrowly defeated by ETSU’s Alory Pereira in the three sets: 6-7, 6-4 and 6-4.
After barely losing to ETSU — last year’s Southern Conference champion and owner of a 20-3 record in the 2016 season — the Trojans will travel to North Carolina on Saturday to take on Winthrop before making the short trip to battle Furman the next day.
