The West Virginia University tennis team (1-0, 0-0, Big 12) kicked off its Spring 2021 campaign on Friday afternoon at the Summit Tennis Academy in Morgantown with a 7-0 win over Cleveland State.
“It is of course good for us to finally be back on the pitch and take part in games,” said WVU coach Miha Lisac. “We needed matches. We need match play. From that point of view, it was a great day for us. I think it was kind of obvious that we started the match a little nervously and obviously we weren’t quite off-season to say the least. But I liked the way the team came together and competed through situations and some of the struggles we were in. So overall it feels like a pretty good day. “
In doubles, West Virginia secured the first win of the game from 3rd place. Junior Nicole Roc and newcomer Momoko Nagato dominated the Cleveland State duo of Selma Tounsi and Gaby Schoenberg and defeated the 6: 1.
Junior Anastasiia Bovolskaia and newcomer Nadya Maslova competed in first place against Miruna Vasilescu and Bethany Yauch. The Viking duo presented Bovolskaia and Maslova with a solid challenge, but the mountaineering couple eventually triumphed 6-3 and took double the team point.
The last double from second place was played. Redshirt senior Hunter Bleser and newcomer Amber Fuller fell 6: 3 in their match against Blanche Lenoan and Kateryna Avram.
Bleser started the single game with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Sian Payne. The Redshirt senior dominated game number 5 from start to finish to help the WVU bring the CSU 2-0 up.
Maslova finished third shortly afterwards, defeating Yauch in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. West Virginia led 3-0 with four games remaining.
The match was decided off of the # 1 singles slot in which Bovolskaia scored a highly competitive two-set win over Vasilescu to help WVU score their first win of the season. The remaining individual games were played.
In the single game # 6, Roc Avram followed 5-1 to start the first set but stormed back to tie it 6-6. Roc took on the following tiebreaker 7-2 and took the lead with one set. Roc dominated the second set 6-1 to win the match and extend WVU’s lead to 5-0.
Nagato took the WVU’s sixth team point in second place. After fighting through most of the first set, Nagato split from Lenoan to take the frame 7-5 before winning the second set 6-3.
In the last game of the day Fuller faced Tounsi from the No. 4 singles position. Tounsi struck first, taking the first set 7-5, but Fuller reacted dominantly to win the second set 6-1 and force a 10-point tiebreaker. In the following third set, Fuller prevailed 10: 4 to win the match and complete the mountaineering sweep.
After a week off from competition, West Virginia will return to court on Friday March 5th as the mountaineers host the VCU. The first serve of the Summit Tennis Academy in Morgantown is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.CET.
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