DESTIN, Fla. – The Louisiana Tech tennis team had a strong showing in its final tournament of the fall season in the TOPS'L Invitational at the TOPS'L Beach and Racquet Resort.
LA Tech participated in the hidden dual Friday through Sunday against Nicholls State and New Orleans. The Lady Techsters defeated the Colonels 4-1 in singles and 2-0 in doubles while falling 3-2 to the Privateers in singles and tying 1-1 in doubles.
"This was a great tournament to end and celebrate the fall season," said head coach
Amanda Stone. "We competed well and our top lineup spots earned good results. Our doubles looked strong in both matches as well. The site was fantastic and we were able to do a lot of team bonding.
"Overall, the team has a lot to be proud of and a good foundation to build on going into the spring. Our younger players saw a lot of action and, while it was challenging at times, there was a lot of growth. Most importantly, we've gained a lot of confidence in both our abilities and in each other and that will be key in the spring."
On Friday, LA Tech overpowered Nicholls State with four straight-set victories in singles. Three of the wins came from the top three spots in the lineup, starting with
Ilana Tetruashvili who defeated Lingfeng Gu 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1.
On court two,
Ana Jover downed Laura Lopez 6-4, 6-4 and at the No. 3 spot,
Alexia Romero remained hot by winning 7-5, 6-1 over Morgan Forshag. The fourth win came from
Rikona Murakami on court five who took care of Mikaela Konstantinova by a final score of 6-4, 6-1.
On Saturday, LA Tech split the doubles match with UNO with the lone win coming from the tandem of Jover and Murakami who defeated Lea Alguacil and Tristanne Dechoux, 8-6, at No. 2.
Sunday started out with a sweep in doubles over Nicholls State by scores of 8-7 and 8-3 from Jover/Murakami and Tetruashvili/Romero, respectively. The tourney wrapped up that evening with the Lady Techsters getting singles victories from Jover (6-1, 7-6) and Romero (2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (8)) on courts two and three.
For the entire fall season, the sophomore Jover put together the most victories with eight. And in doubles, Tetruashvili and Romero teamed up to produce a team-best 7-2 mark.
LA Tech will now have two months before the spring season gets underway in mid-January.
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