TULSA, Okla. – The Louisiana Tech tennis team dropped a pair of matches to Tulsa and Wyoming on Saturday on day one of the Hurricane Invite to get the 2021 dual season underway.
 
LA Tech (0-2) came into the weekend with four newcomers set to see action.  And despite the fairly-new roster which suffered a 7-0 loss to the Golden Hurricane and a 4-2 loss to the Cowgirls, there were plenty of positives and good tennis to take from both matches. 
 
"I told the team last night that while we may be considered the underdogs this weekend, I know that we are a team who can compete with anyone and we have to play like we believe that," said head coach Amanda Stone.  "That belief really showed through today.  We came out swinging in doubles and that aggression paid off as we had our best result to date against Tulsa.
 
"I think in the Wyoming match, we can really measure how much our team has improved in a year.  While we played a competitive match last January, we never had a pathway to victory.  This year, we were points away from flipping the singles, 4-2, in our favor."
 
LA Tech took eight combined games off one of the best doubles lineups in the country for Tulsa.  The Lady Techsters battled in singles as well, but came up short in straight sets on all six courts. 
 
The team turned around and faced a Wyoming squad for the third straight year at the event.  In the past two meetings, LA Tech was only able to secure one total victory against the Cowgirls.  It was a different story on Saturday as the Lady Techsters were just a handful of points away from pulling out a win.
 
Junior Anastasiia Salenko got the first win of the spring season (as well as her first dual win as a Lady Techsters) by downing Ana Fernandez, 6-3, 6-4 on court three.  Not long after, sophomore Alexia Romero picked up a straight-sets win over Lucia Malinak, 6-4, 6-4, at the No. 4 spot.
 
The match came down to the top two positions that both went into third sets.  At No. 1, freshman Leonie Schuknecht won a tiebreaker in the second set to force the third and deciding set which also went into a tiebreaker that she came out on the wrong end of, falling 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. 
 
And on court two, junior Ilana Tetruashvili took the early lead with a 6-3 first-set, but dropped the next two for a final score of 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. 
 
"We have some improving to do for us to break through that wall and make that happen, but shot for shot on the baseline we held our own on every line today," said Stone.  "Tomorrow, our goal is the same.  Come out fighting and earn the opportunity to win."
 
The two teams will round out the match by playing doubles on Sunday morning at approximately 9:30 a.m.  LA Tech will conclude the event with a third and final match against Central Arkansas.
 
For all the latest in LA Tech Tennis, follow them on Twitter (@LATechTEN), Instagram (@LATechTennis) and Facebook (LATechTennis).