Scott Watkins
Staff Writer
The Troy women’s tennis team played a pair of Sun Belt teams during the weekend in Atlanta, coming away victorious in both matches.
The Trojans cruised past Appalachian State 6-1 on Friday before grabbing a pivotal 4-3 win against Coastal Carolina on Sunday to stretch Troy’s match winning streak to five.
Against the Mountaineers, Troy began the match by securing a hard-fought doubles point.
The Troy duo of seniors Efriliya Herlina and Jiayuan Xue took the first match 6-2 before Appalachian State won the second one 6-3.
Seniors Nancy Karaky and Sanae Ohta then captured the doubles point for Troy with a 7-6, 7-2 win.
In singles play, Ju Pei Hsieh defeated Melissa Machado to win the Trojans’ first singles point.
Ohta and Xue then followed with singles wins of their own before the Mountaineers won their lone point of the day.
Troy finished strong, winning the final two sets to close out the match. Matea Mihaljevic registered a 6-2, 6-4 win and Herlina won the final singles set of the day.
After taking the Saturday off, Troy defeated a Coastal Carolina team that was riding an eight-match win streak.
The Chanticleers got off to a hot start, taking the doubles point by sweeping all three games. CCU continued its dominant start by winning the first two singles matches to take a commanding 3-0 match lead.
Xue was able to turn the tide by winning in three sets to put the Trojans on the board.
Mihaljevic then ground out a three-set win ahead of Herlina’s match-tying three-set victory.
Hsieh took down Jessie Mount in three sets to complete Troy’s comeback.
The Trojans will take the weekend off before the Sun Belt Championships begins on April 19 in Peachtree City, Georgia.