Eagles earn crucial road win
MIKE MAYNARD | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 months, 2 weeks AGO
PORTLAND — The Eastern Washington Eagles women’s tennis (9-7) earned a competitive 4-3 win over Portland State on Saturday. According to a statement by EWU Athletics, the Eagles first earned a win in doubles competition before rallying to the match win through singles competition.
“It came down to the last match again, and I’m proud of the whole team. It took everyone to fight today despite losing some matches. We really needed everyone’s energy from top to bottom,” Head Coach Dustin Hinson said.
According to PSU Athletics, Kasumi Hirayama and Nene Uemura opened doubles with a strong 6-2 win over Anait Arutiunian and Sara Vasic. The Vikings couldn’t capitalize on that early momentum, however, as Eastern Washington claimed wins at No. 1 and No. 3 to take a 1-0 lead.
Zoe Pradel and Olivia Marais put the Eagles in a good spot, winning at No. 1, 6-2 over the Vikings’ Hana Abdelhamid and Marta Giglio. Leandra Nizetic and Maria Lopez then clinched the point for Eastern after winning 6-4 over Scarlett Perkins and Anjola Ige.
“We started great in doubles, playing with energy and playing bravely,” Hinson explained. “We stayed aggressive and were able to get the point, which makes a huge difference to build momentum in the match.”
The Vikings opened singles play with three straight wins, putting themselves in position to clinch the match with just one of the three remaining courts. Hirayama opened with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Veronika Gayevyk at No. 5.
Hana Abdelhamid followed with a straight-set win of her own on court four, beating Olivia Marias 6-4, 6-2. Uemura, who dropped her opening set at line three, regrouped and never looked back, posting dominant second- and third-set victories to top Zoe Predel 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Moving to singles, Portland St. surged ahead and moved to one point away from clinching the match after wins at No. 5, 4 and 3.
Aneliss Zamifrescu kept the match alive after defeating Ige in two sets.
Nizetic tied the match up with a win over Perkins in the No. 1 singles match. Anait Arutiunian provided the match-clincher, defeating Giglio in three sets at No. 2 singles.
“It came down to Anait at No. 2, and she really stepped up as a senior does. She really came through for us to win that third set 6-3 against a very tough opponent in this conference. Leandra had a huge clutch win in the third-set tiebreaker. Annalise made it 3-2 earlier to give our two seniors a chance to win the match,” Hinson said.
The Eagles just have three more regular season matches left, two of which are on the road. Their next match is April 10 at Idaho State starting at 10 a.m. From there, they travel to Weber State on April 12 before returning home for the season finale against the University of Idaho on April 18. As they look ahead, Hinson and the Eagles hope to carry this momentum forward.
“I’m really proud of the team’s hard work, and it really just boils down to everyone staying positive, even knowing there’s going to be pressure situations. In those situations, it’s just staying positive and in the moment. Overall, that’s what got us to where we needed to be today. We can celebrate this win and then look forward to some more battles coming up,” Hinson said.
Results
Singles
Leandra Nizetic (EWU) def. Scarlett Perkins (PSU) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4)
Anait Arutiunian (EWU) def. Marta Giglio (PSU) 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3
Nene Uemura (PSU) def. Zoe Pradel (EWU) 4-6, 6-0, 6-1
Hana Abdelhamid (PSU) def. Olivia Marais (EWU) 6-4, 6-2
Kasumi Hirayama (PSU) def. Veronika Gayevyk (EWU) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
Aneliss Zamfirescu (EWU) def. Anjola Ige (PSU) 6-2, 7-6 (7-6)
Doubles
Zoe Pradel / Olivia Marais (EWU) def. Hana Abdelhamid / Marta Giglio (PSU) 6-2
Nene Uemura / Kasumi Hirayama (PSU) def. Anait Arutiunian / Sara Vasic (EWU) 6-2
Leandra Nizetic / Maria Lopez (EWU) def. Scarlett Perkins / Anjola Ige (PSU) 6-4
ARTICLES BY MIKE MAYNARD
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