JONESBORO, Ark. – Missing a top player and missing critical points was the story for the Louisiana Tech tennis team on Saturday as they dropped a 4-2 match at Arkansas State.
LA Tech (4-4) had match points to claim the doubles point, but A-State (1-2) pulled on a 7-6 tiebreaker to grab the early lead.
With almost the entire lineup forced to move up a line in singles, the Lady Techsters were able to generate two points at courts one and three, but the Red Wolves got three more points at two, four and five to seal the win.
"One doubles had another strong showing today," said head coach
Amanda Stone. "And I am extremely proud of Leonie for pulling out a tight match. She has had so many this year and hopefully getting this win today can be a turning point for her in singles. Alexia toughed out a tight one as well. Was happy with how she responded after her last match.
"This team is young and it hurt us these past two matches having Anastasiia sick, but the big thing this team needs to learn is capitalizing on our opportunities. We had match points at two doubles. We had tons of deuce points that could have changed the outcome. I think losing these close matches this week really highlighted this point for us. It is about confidence and we need to consistently show up believing we can win on every line."
The doubles tandem of
Leonie Schuknecht and Ilana Tetraushvili continue to get better and better. They extended their winning streak to four with a 6-4 victory at No. 1.
However, A-State picked up a 6-2 win at No. 3 and then Shelby King and Jill Morse managed to outduel Tech's
Alexia Romero and
Lara Unkovich at the deciding No. 2 position.
With just three courts available at the indoor facility (match was moved inside due to rain), the Lady Techsters won two of the first three matches.
Schuknecht battled back from a set down to outlast Hunter Roper by a final score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 on court one. The freshman came in having lost all three of her three-set matches, but she dug deep to pull out her third overall victory of the spring.
Romero provided the other point. The sophomore moved up a spot, playing on court three for just the second time in her young career. She ended up besting Morse by a final score of 7-6, 7-6.
A-State would get a straight-sets win by Thea Rice at the No. 2 position though to make it 2-all. Then the home team added two more straight-set victories by King and Nejla Zukic.
Next up for LA Tech is a trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee where they will play two C-USA matches against WKU and Middle Tennessee on March 5 and 6, respectively.
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