Women's Tennis | 4/24/2015 10:33:00 PM
DALLAS, Texas – The St. Edward's Women's Tennis Team came away with hard fought 5-2 victory over rival Dallas Baptist in the semifinal round of the Heartland Conference Tournament Friday morning at the SMU Tennis Complex.
St. Edward's managed to come away with all three doubles matches but it did not come easy. At the No. 1 spot
BROOKE HUGHES and Sasha Khadzyhan had a back-and-forth match against Natalie Gennissen and Amanda Richter. Hughes and Khadzyhan managed to pull away late in the match and win by an 8-4 score.
FRANCESCA CHAHER and
IVANA ZECEVIC found themselves trailing 1-3 early against the Patriots tandem of Cassandra Wennestrom and Liz Slaughter. Chaher and Zecevic would rally back to break multiple games and win a heated tiebreaker by a score of 9-8 (7-3).
RAFAELA HAEGELE and
MARISSA WILLIAMS would take on Bianca Tijerina and Maria Fernandez in the No. 3 match. Haegele and Williams would ultimately outlast the Patriots duo and give the Hilltoppers a clean sweep in the doubles portion of the match with an 8-5 victory.
Needing just two more points to secure the victory, the Hillltoppers would begin singles play eager to make their way to the championship round. Dallas Baptist would earn the first point as Slaughter defeated
SUMMER BIGGS at the No. 5 singles position. Biggs put up a valiant effort, however she would fall 6-1, 6-2. The Patriots would tighten the match and bring it to 3-2 as Tijierina would narrowly defeated
MARISSA WILLIAMS at the No. 6 singles spot. Williams and Tijerina went back and forth through their two sets, however Williams lost by scores of 6-4, 7-5.
As three of the final four matches went to three sets, St. Edward's still held a narrow lead. Chaher would deliver the Hilltopper fourth point of the day as she defeated Richter. Chaher and Richter found themselves in numerous games that went to deuce, however Chaher would prevail 6-3, 6-2 to take the No. 4 singles match. With the match in reach Zecevic would nail down the victory from the No. 3 singles position. After dropping the first set 6-1 to Fernandez, Zecevic would step up to win 12 of the next 14 games and clinch the victory for the Hilltoppers with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 win.
As the match was 5-2, the No. 1 singles between Sasha Khadzyhan and Gennissen was unifinished despite Khadzyhan having a narrow 6-2, 1-6, 5-4 lead.
RAFAELA HAEGELE and Wennerstrom were locked in a very tight match at the No. 2 singles match. After dropping the first set 2-6, Hagele took the second set 6-4 and was tied in the third set 3-3.
Kendall Brooks was ecstatic after the key victory. "I am so happy for the win and proud of my team today. The energy and crowd indoors was electric and made it a very fun environment to play in." Brooks went on to say, "All three doubles matches were very close and they did a great job of staying composed and closing them out to give us a 3-0 advantage -which we know is big for us. We didn't have a great start in singles, but every single person battled back and that proved to be huge for us today. If we can keep that fight and energy going into tomorrow's final, I think we can give ourselves a chance at the title no matter who we play."
St. Edward's will take on top-seeded St. Mary's in the championship match. The Rattlers defeated Newman, 5-0, in the other semifinal. The two teams will square off for the title at 10:00 a.m. at the SMU Tennis Complex in Dallas, Texas.
