STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Louisiana Tech Tennis team challenged themselves again this fall, and again the Lady Techsters rose to that challenge by tallying 12 victories against top-tier competition this weekend at the John Cade Invitational hosted by Mississippi State.
 
Playing in a round robin against MSU and Memphis, both nationally ranked teams last season, and ACC foe Louisville, LA Tech went an impressive 5-4 in doubles with brand new lineups and collected seven victories in singles, including one over a nationally ranked player.
 
In doubles, the Lady Techsters went 2-1 versus the Tigers and Bulldogs and 1-2 against the Cardinals.  
 
The duo of Alexia Romero and Valentina Vazquez shined all weekend by winning all three matches on court three.  On day one, they went back-to-back with victories of 8-6 and 8-5 over Farres Carreter/Dolavee Tumthong (Memphis) and Gia Cohen/Emily Surcey (MSU), respectively.  On day two, they continued their winning ways with an 8-5 victory versus Sasha Gorchanyuk/Tyra Richardson (UL).
 
Olga Bienzobas/Ana Rodrigues dismantled Memphis' top duo of Camila Soares/Aran Teixido by a score of 8-2 and Leonie Schuknecht/Ilana Tetruashvili outlasted MSU's Emmanouela Antonaki/Sydney Hrehor by a score of 8-5 on court two.
 
The seven victories in singles came from the trio of Schuknecht, Rodrigues and Vazquez.  The biggest win was that of Schuknecht who took down 52nd-ranked Antonaki of Mississippi State, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1. She followed that up by outlasting Louisville's No. 1 Rhea Verma, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2.
 
Rodrigues continued her strong fall, winning all three of her matches against Miriam Grosmann (Memphis) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, Maddie Bemisderfer (MSU) 6-4, 6-1, and Sasha Gorchanyuk (UL) 6-2, 6-1. 
 
Meanwhile, Vazquez bounced back from a three-set loss in her first singles match to produce two three-set wins of her own against Emily Survey (MSU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-0 and Joy Callwood (UL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Amanda Stone
 
"I could not be more happy with how we competed this weekend. We are continuing to prove how much our program has elevated. It is tough to pick a single moment because our team did so well. Our doubles looked much better and we played great again in singles, but Leonie beating Mississippi State's All-American in straight sets was the highest of the tournament. It was an incredible win for her and our team."
 
"This team has put in a lot of hard work this fall. We have to stay hungry and push each other to get even better. We are very excited for the direction we are going."
 
NOTABLES

• LA Tech now has singles wins over Arkansas, Tulane, LSU, Mississippi State, Memphis, and Louisville this fall.
• Leonie Schuknecht's win over 52nd-ranked Emmanoeula Antonaki was the first victory by a LA Tech over a nationally ranked player since 2015 (highest ranked singles win ever).
• Ana Rodrigues went a perfect 3-0 in singles to bring her fall record to 9-4, the most wins on the team
• Leonie Schuknecht improved to 8-3 this fall in singles after going 2-1 at the John Cade Invitational
• Alexia Romero and Valentina Vazquez went a perfect 3-0 in doubles. Romero now has a team-best 5-5 doubles record this fall.

UP NEXT
LA Tech will close out its fall season on its home courts when they host the LA Tech Invitational on Nov. 12-13.
 
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