Feb. 15, 2013
Results
BEAUMONT - The Lamar women's tennis team started off its home slate in impressive fashion on Friday afternoon, taking home a 6-1 decision over the visiting Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana at Thompson Family Tennis Center.
"I thought that the ladies played very hard today," head coach David Wong said. "We've lost some matches to some very tough opponents this season, but we really just needed to put points together out there. We still made some mistakes, and we were able to overcome them. Overall, they played well today."
The duo of Carolina Salas and Hélène Czudek got things started for the Lady Cardinals, posting an 8-4 victory over Nicole Breaux and Bailey VanDyke at No. 1. However, UL responded a few minutes later as Dariya Dashutina and Natalia Mayagoitia dropped an 8-6 decision at No. 3 to Juliette Clement and Melissa Burckhartt bring it even.
It wasn't easy, but ultimately, Alicia Porte and Carolina Masò were able to hold on for an 8-6 win of their own over Sophie van den Aarsen and Hannah Appleyard at the second spot to secure the doubles point.
In singles, the Lady Cards were pushed to tie-breaks on three courts with LU taking home two. On Court 1, Salas recovered from dropping a tight first set to win 6-7 (6), 6-2, 10-8 over van den Aarsen, and Porte fought off a charging VanDyke for a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 13-11 decision at No. 2.
Mayagoitia was not as fortunate in the fourth spot, falling 5-7, 6-2, 12-14.
"Lafayette really tested us today," Wong said. "They fought hard and are a credit to their coach. We made the plays that we needed to in order to put points together and this should give us good momentum going forward."
In other singles action, both Dashutina and Alessandra Pennesi picked up 6-1, 6-3 victories. Dashutina beat Clement at No. 5, and Pennesi knocked off Appleyard at No. 6. On Court 3, Masò won 6-3, 6-3 over Breaux.
Czudek and Eleanor Bradshaw also competed, with Czudek taking home the 6-2, 6-3 decision.
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