On Feb. 25, the women’s tennis team had a match against the women’s tennis team from Walsh University at the 5 Star Tennis Club in Plainfield. The women’s tennis team defeated Walsh 4-3.
The team has had a history of 7 wins and 2 losses against the team from Walsh. Their home record is 4-1 and their away record is 3-1. For the team’s previous match against this school, which was on Feb. 25 last year, they defeated Walsh 6-1.
At the venue where the game was held, the team practiced for about 30 minutes before the Walsh team arrived for the match. When the matches did start, it was the three doubles matches that came first, then the six singles matches that came after that.
For many of the matches, both singles and doubles, spectators watching noticed the players hitting the ball into the net when they serve or hitting the ball out of bounds from time to time.
In the first doubles match, it was junior physics major Casey Smith and clinical mental health counseling graduate student Anastasiya Salenko versus Alexa Gamborino and Carla Padberg from Walsh. Smith and Salenko defeated the duo from Walsh 6-3.
“I think the game went pretty quick for me and it was pretty good,” said graduate student Anastasiya Salenko. “The match was kind of easy since I played against them last year and we might do better than Walsh [this year].”
In the second doubles match, it was junior business analytics major Anabel Aguilar and sophomore accounting major Sage Hills against Yasmina Mayer and Shantala Uzcategui from Walsh. Aguilar and Hills lost their match 5-7.
In the last doubles match, the matchup was junior organizational communication and PR/advertising double major Grace Sueflohn and freshman political science major Benedetta Luccone versus Risako Umekuni and Isabella Sanchez from Walsh. Sueflohn and Luccone won their match 6-2.
After all of the doubles matches were done, it was time for the singles matches to begin. For the first matchup, it was Smith versus Umekuni. In the first set, she crushed Umekuni 6-0. In the second set, she won 7-5.
In the second singles match, it was Salenko versus Padberg. In the first set, Salenko won 6-3. In the second set, she crushed Padberg 6-0.
“[In terms of what I could have done better], technically and strategically, I think I was keeping both deep and making no mistakes,” said Salenko. “I think maybe returns is what I need to improve on.”
In the third singles match, it was Luccone against Mayer. In the first set, Luccone lost 3-6. In the second set, she won 6-2. In the third set, she was defeated by Uzcategui 2-6.
In the fourth singles match, it was Aguilar versus Gamborino. In the first set, Aguilar lost 3-6. In the second set, Aguilar lost 4-6.
In the fifth singles match, it was Sueflohn versus Mayer. In both sets, Sueflohn lost 3-6. In the last singles match, it was Hills against Walsh’s Chiara Wolff. In the first set, Hills defeated Wolff 7-5. In the second set, Hills won 6-2.
The women’s tennis team’s next match will be their match against the team from Purdue University Northwest on March 2 at the Homewood-Flossmoor Racquet Club in Homewood, Illinois.
Photo Credits: Katelyn Leano
