March 1, 2010

Box Score

RUSTON--Louisiana Tech's tennis team fell 4-3 to Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday at the Lady Techster Tennis Complex. UALR defeated the Lady Techsters 7-0 in last season's match-up.

"We had another close match today," head coach Quintin Yray said. "This is the second match in two weeks where we actually had a match point but couldn't close it out. I know the girls were disappointed that this one too did not go our way, but I told them I'm still very proud of them for giving a great fight. They need to know that if they continue their hard work, eventually it is going to pay off."

The Techsters failed to win a set in last season's match-up with UALR as the y lost 7-0. This year they were on the verge of winning, but just came up short, a marked improvement over just one year.

Louisiana Tech got off on the right foot by winning the doubles point with two big wins by team one Vivian ten Dolle and Maartje de Wit and team two which consisted of Cecile Vichery and Rocio Juarez.

In singles action ten Dolle picked up another point for Tech by defeating UALR's Anne Weijenborg 6-1, 6-2 in the number one spot.

"What more can I say about ten Dolle except that she is a great player," said Yray. "She was like a surgeon out there today, slicing and dicing up her opponent. She had very little problem with UALR's number one."

After winning the first set in the number two slot 6-0 vs. a very talented Yana Kakovkina, Tech's Cecile Vichery was unable to win the next two as she fell 7-6, 6-0.

"The second set was so close going into a tie breaker, and Cecile had a match point which would have given us the victory today," said Yray. "I know Cecile is disappointed, but I'm not. She is a great player, person and student and we're lucky to have her on the team. She will learn and improve from these close matches."

UALR picked up their second and third wins in the number three and four spots before Tech freshman Alena Erofeyeva pulled out a come from behind win in the number five position. Erofeyeva lost the first set 6-2 before coming back to win the next two 6-4 and 6-0.

"Alena has been sick the last couple days so she wasn't as fit as she would like to have been," said Yray. "She still played a very good match however. Her opponent was very consistent from the baseline, so she had to put in a lot of hard work to win this match."

Tech's Laura Rodriguez was unable to pull out a win in the number six slot, falling 6-2, 6-2.

The Techsters return to action on March 6 when they travel to play Alcorn State at 1:30 p.m. CT.