Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Women's Tennis Suffers Setback at FIU
1/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 26, 2011
Miami, FL - The road keeps getting tougher for the Florida Atlantic University women's tennis team in losing its second straight match against a nationally ranked opponent in Miami. This time the Owls suffered a 6-1 setback at Sun Belt Conference rival Florida International University, ranked No. 54, on Wednesday.
"FIU is a tough team to face and it was a very competitive match," said Marcy Hora-Cava, FAU's head women's tennis coach. "Everybody played hard and gave good effort."
Cassie Bergeson led the way for FAU with victories in singles and doubles action. The junior from Los Gatos, Calif., posted her first victory of the season, a hard fought three-set 6-4, 3-6 and 10-6 victory over FIU's Maria Spenceley at No. 5 singles. Bergeson joined with freshman Marlene Ryan to score an 8-2 victory at No. 2 doubles.
Three of the six singles matches in the FAU-FIU encounter were extended to three sets. Sophomore Natasha Basma lost 10-7 in a third set tiebreaker at No. 3 singles, while classmate Natasha Phillips fell 10-6 in the deciding set at No. 6 singles. Both of the Owls' players had won the opening set of their matches.
"Basma and Phillips came down to the wire and their matches could have gone either way," said Hora-Cava. "The (FIU) opponents made some good shots. It was a good learning experience for those two sophomores."
Later, Basma and Phillips teamed to suffer a hard-fought match, 8-6, in the deciding No. 3 doubles match.
"The doubles point was up for grabs. I liked what I saw from Basma and Phillips in terms of their demeanor and determination to battle throughout the match," said Hora-Cava.
FAU dropped to 0-2 on the season after losing a season-opening match last week at the University of Miami. The team returns to the court on February 5 when it travels to battle Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.
No. 54 FIU 6, Florida Atlantic 1
Singles
No. 1 Christine Serendi (FIU) def. Marlene Ryan (FAU) 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 Liset Brito (FIU) def. Erika Mrazkova (FAU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 Lisa Johnson (FIU) def. Natasha Basma (FAU) 4-6, 6-3, 10-7
No. 4 Rita Maisak (FIU) def. Virginia Augustin (FAU) 6-0, 6-0
No. 5 Cassie Bergeson (FAU) def. Maria Spenceley (FIU) 6-4, 3-6, 10-6
No. 6 Giulietta Boha (FIU) def. Natasha Phillips (FIU) 2-6, 6-1, 10-6
Doubles
No. 1 Brito/Spenceley (FIU) def. Augustin/Mrazkova (FAU) 8-0
No. 2 Ryan/Bergeson (FAU) def. Seredni/Boha (FIU) 8-2
No. 3 Johnson/Maisak (FIU) def. Basma/Phillips (FAU) 8-6
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
Order of Finish:
1,2,3,4,5,6