RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech tennis team closed out its fall season on Saturday on its home courts, playing I-20 foes ULM and Grambling State in the LA Tech Invitational.
 
Play started with a strong effort by LA Tech in doubles, winning on three of the four courts with mostly new lineups.  On court one, Leonie Schuknecht and Ana Rodrigues teamed up for the first time and came on with a 6-2 victory over ULM's Balaba/Grigoriu.
 
The Lady Techsters also won on courts three and four as Alexia Romero and Ilana Tetruashvili defeated ULM's Garbino/Hernandez, 6-3, and Lara Unkovich and Madison Cefalu registered a 6-3 victory over Grambling State's Mawisire/Machisa.
 
LA Tech picked up four wins in two rounds of singles.  At the top, Schuknecht rebounded from a tough loss in round one to defeat Madaline Grigoriu (ULM), 6-1, 6-2.
 
Playing at the No. 3 spot, Rodrigues gathered her sixth singles win of the fall with a comeback of 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (2) over ULM's Oleksandra Balaba. 
 
Down 5-6 in the first set against ULM's Brianna Gomez, Tetruashvili won seven straight games plus a tiebreaker to picked up a 7-6, 6-0 victory on court four.  The other win for LA Tech came from Najah Dawson who outlasted ULM's Jimena Paula Garbino, 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 5 position.
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Amanda Stone
 
"I am really happy we were able to have this home event.  ULM and Grambling are teams we play every year and are very familiar with so seeing how we competed overall gives us a good idea of where our team is at this point.  There are definitely areas we need to improve and tighten up in order to have the season we want, but there are a lot of positives to build on too." 
 
"Our doubles have improved a lot since the first tournament.  We can out strong and aggressive on all courts.  We got good wins in some tight matches in singles too.  The biggest jump we need to make is mental.  We have proven this fall that we have a lot of potential, now we have to prove we can play consistently at a high level from first point to last."
 
NOTABLES

• Freshman Ana Rodrigues finished the fall with a team-high six singles wins
• Newcomer Najah Dawson recorded her first victory at LA Tech (had missed the majority of the fall season)
• Leonie Schuknecht and Ana Rodrigues teamed up for the first time in doubles
• Leonie Schuknecht and Ilana Tetruashvili tied for the best record in doubles this fall with a 4-2 mark

UP NEXT
LA Tech looks ahead to the spring season, which will get underway in mid-January. 
 
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