Women's tennis extends winning streak to 11

By Nicolette Chamberlain     4/10/13 7:00pm

Taking its 11th straight win, the Rice women's tennis team came from behind, after losing the first four of six sets this past weekend. The Owls played No. 51 Southern Methodist University on Saturday, April 6 and battled for a 5-2 conference victory. 

Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt said the team exhibited perseverance in order to win.

"Even though we won this match 5-2, it was an extremely close match, and for a lot of it, we were playing from behind," Schmidt said. "Our team did an excellent job staying focused on the task at hand and did not let the scoreboard distract them."

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Toward the beginning of the match, No. 1 singles sophomore Natalie Beazant was the only player ahead in her match. Beazant went on to win 6-4, 6-2 against Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranked No. 119 Edyta Cieplucha. While the 13-game streak of the No. 17 doubles Beazant and junior Dominique Harmath pair was cut short Saturday, the Owls were able to secure the 1-0 lead for the match after an 8-5 win from senior Daniela Trigo and freshman Solomiya Zinko and a strong finish from senior Katie Gater and sophomore Liat Zimmermann (9-7). However, losses at singles courts' No. 2 and No. 4 tied the score 2-2. 

Especially after decisive victories in Rice's past few victories, the team had to push to make up for lost ground.

"[Coming from behind] was a little bit of a different experience than we have been having recently," Beazant said. "Luckily, we have done it before, so we have some experience to pull from."

After junior Kimberly Anicete won her match at No. 5 singles to earn the go-ahead point, Zimmermann was able to come back from a 4-6 first set loss and a 4-3 deficit to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 and finalize the win for Rice. Just after Zimmermann's comeback, Zinko capped off the match, after losing her first set 2-6 and winning a close second set in a 7-4 tiebreaker, with a 6-0 third set victory.

Beazant commented on the struggle her teammates faced to acquire the win against SMU.   

"SMU was definitely a tough test for us," Beazant said. "We needed the comebacks from [Zinko] and [Zimmermann] to win the match, and they fought back and got us the wins."

This was the women's tennis team's second-to-last match before the Conference USA tournament, and the team will have another close matchup before finishing the regular season. The Owls will play Utah University Saturday, April 13 at Jake Hess Stadium at 11 a.m.

Schmidt elaborated on the expected performance necessary of the Rice tennis team in its upcoming match against Utah this weekend.

"[Utah] is feisty and plays hard, similar to us, so I think it should be a really good match," Schmidt said.

Rice will also honor its three seniors Trigo, Gater and Leah Fried at the annual senior day. The now 26th-ranked team will begin conference play the following weekend on April 18. 

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