Augusto Rossi
Staff Writer
The Troy women’s tennis team dropped its first two home matches of the season over the weekend at the Lunsford Tennis Complex with back-to-back 5-2 losses to ULM and North Florida.
The defending Sun Belt champion Warhawks outlasted the Trojans on Friday after controlling the singles phase of the match, followed by the Ospreys doing much the same two days later. Troy won five of its six doubles matches over the course of both contests, but won just three of its 12 singles matches.
In Friday’s matchup, Troy’s Efriliya Herlina and Jiayuan Xue finished off the doubles phase with a win over ULM’s Bianca Koen and Madalina Grigoriu, but the Trojans were not able to get wins in their prior two doubles matches.
In singles play, Herlina won her match in two sets by a score of 7-6, 6-2 against Teodora Radu on court two. Freshmen Pei Ju Hsieh also won her match in two sets, defeating Clara Rizea 7-6, 3-0.
Senior Nancy Karaky won the first set in her match against ULM’s Karolina Silwanowiczt, but lost the final two sets 6-3, 6-3. The other three Trojans lost their matches as well, extending the team’s losing streak to six matches.
Two days later, the Trojans hosted UNF and were met with similar results as the rest of the spring season so far. Despite sweeping all three doubles matches, Troy conceded all but one singles matches to come away with a loss.
In doubles play, Xue and Herlina earned a 6-1 win over the Osprey’s Kinga Gartner and Eva Nyikos.
Sanae Ohta and Karaky followed with a 6-4 win of their own to finish up the doubles point for Troy. Hsieh and Maria Casas Blas also won their match 6-3.
In singles, Troy battled on all five courts, but it was not enough to get the win. Ohta, Karaky and Matea Mihaljavic all fell in two sets.
Xue got a win for the Trojans as she defeated Valentina Mariotoo 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Herlina almost won her match, but was defeated in the third set.
On court six, Hsieh took Florencia Rossi to three sets but was not able to get the victory as well.
Next, Troy will play Nicholls State at home on March 3 at 11 a.m.
