University of Houston
Stephen F. Austin
Cougars Take Two On The Courts
2/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Feb. 13, 2008
HOUSTON - The University of Houston women's tennis team returned to the friendly confines of the John E. Hoff Courts on the UH campus and swept two matches from Stephen F. Austin State and Lee College. The Cougars improved to 4-4 on the year.
"We fought hard today," UH head coach John Severance said. "We'll definitely take the wins. We have to use matches like this to get better as a team.
"I'm not too concerned about the quantity of wins. I want quality wins against top-ranked opponents. We can only get better when we use our wins to beat ranked teams."
Against SFA in the morning, the Cougars jumped all over the Lumberjacks en route to a 7-0 win. Beginning with doubles action, Houston surrendered just four games in capturing the doubles point. Lucy Forward and Jordan McCombs worked over SFA's #1 doubles tandem of Roxi Enica and Sanjana Kapur, 8-3, while at #2 doubles Lynley Wasson and Joanna Kacprzyk downed Tatiana Smolnikova and Gabriela Gadeva, 8-1.
At #3 Leila Salek and Vicky Simpson shutout the SFA duo of Mary Harrison and Christelle Kaempfer, 8-0.
The Cougars made a clean sweep in singles, dropping just one set in the process. At #6 Simpson made quick work of Kaempfer, 6-4, 6-0, and then Neila Starratt took out Smolnikova at #5, 6-2, 6-0. Wasson dropped just three games in routing Gadeva, 6-2, 6-1, while Salek hammered Kapur, 6-1, 6-2 at #2 singles.
At the top of the lineup, the Cougars worked a few comebacks in taking #1 and #3 singles. Down in the first set, Kacprzyk rallied for a 7-6, 6-3 win over Harrison at #3, while Forward dropped her first set, 7-5, before knocking out Enica, 6-2, 10-8 in sets two and three.
In the afternoon against Lee, Houston took a 6-1 decision over the Rebels in a match that was rescheduled from last month. Even though the Cougars dropped the #1 doubles match, Houston rallied to take the point before heading into singles action. At #2 Wasson and Kacprzyk beat Maria Herrera and Stephanie Rodriguez, then Salek and Simpson paired up to whitewash Andrea Villasana and Andrea Hernandez, 8-0.
Houston took five of six matches in singles play, with the only blemish occurring at #2 when Izabella Glinska dropped a hard-fought 7-5, 1-6, 11-9 decision to Anna Djananova. Forward knocked out Natalie Araya, 7-5, 6-2, at #1, then the bottom half of the lineup breezed through the Rebels as Wasson downed Rodriguez, 6-1, 6-3 at #3, Starratt knocked off Herrera, 6-1, 6-3, at #4, Simpson overpowered Villasana, 6-1, 6-2 at #5 and McCombs wrapped up the win with a 6-4, 6-1 knock out of Hernandez at #6.
The Cougars return to the hardcourts on Saturday, February 16, when UH plays host to McNeese State at 2 pm at the John E. Hoff Courts.
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Players Mentioned
