College of William and Mary Athletics issued the following announcement on Feb. 5
William & Mary women's tennis split its season-opening doubleheader on Saturday at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. After dropping the first match of the day in narrow fashion to Big 12 foe West Virginia, 4-3, W&M trounced Norfolk State, 7-0, in the nightcap.
Freshman Hedda Gurholt led the way for the Green and Gold with singles victories in both matches. The Tribe also claimed the doubles point in both contests led by the pair of Gurhold and senior Mila Saric who posted a pair of lopsided wins at the top spot.
W&M started the campaign off by taking the doubles point from West Virginia with wins at the top two spots. Saric and Gurholt dropped just two games in a 6-2 win over Ting-Pei Chang and Momoko Nagato at No. 1. The junior tandem of Raffaela Alhach and Elisa Van Meeteren clinched the initial point of the match with a 6-4 victory over Camila Bossi and Kendall Kovick on line two.
WVU countered with straight-set singles wins at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 to take a 3-1 lead. Gurholt won her first collegiate dual-match at No. 2, downing Nagato in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, to draw the Tribe closer.
The match came down to a pair of three-set tilts at No. 1 and No. 5. As Saric forced a third set at the top spot, the Mountaineers Bossi pulled out a close third set on line five to clinch the visitor's victory.
Saric rallied from dropping the first set in a tiebreaker to Chang by winning the second, 6-4. In the third-set super tiebreaker, the Tribe senior rallied from a 7-5 deficit, winning five of the final six points to notch a 10-8 win, her 11th overall on the year.
In the second match of the day against Norfolk State, W&M won the doubles point with victories at the top two spot and then claimed all six singles matches, including five in straight sets.
Following Saric and Gurholt's unblemished, 6-0, win at the top doubles spot, freshmen Ine Stange and Emma Fernald clinched the point with a 6-1 triumph over Aleksandra Evdokimova and Laura Ruiz.
In singles, Gurholt won her sixth-straight match, dating back to the fall campaign, dropping just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Evdokimova at the top spot. It marked her 11th victory of the season.
Alhach (No. 3), Fernald (No. 4), senior Lisa Fukutoku (No. 5) and redshirt freshman Kensie Cricchio (No. 6) all won in straight sets against the Spartans as well. Van Meeteren rounded out the Tribe sweep with a come-from-behind three-set win at No. 2.
UP NEXT: The Tribe looks to keep it rolling when they host Radford on Saturday, February 12, at 2 p.m.
West Virginia 4, William & Mary 3
Singles
No. 1 – Mila Saric (W&M) def. Ting-Pei Chang (WVU) – 6-7, 6-4, 1-0 (8)
No. 2 – Hedda Gurholt (W&M) def. Momoko Nagato (WVU) – 7-5, 6-4
No. 3 – Kendall Kovick (WVU) def. Elisa Van Meeteren (W&M) – 6-3, 6-1
No. 4 – Michaela Kucharova (WVU) def. Raffaela Alhach (W&M) – 6-4, 6-0
No. 5 – Camila Bossi (WVU) def. Ine Stange (W&M) – 6-2, 1-6, 7-5
No. 6 – Tatiana Lipatova (WVU) def. Emma Fernald (W&M) – 6-3, 7-5
Finishing Order: 3, 4, 6, 2, 5*, 1
Doubles
No. 1 – Saric/Gurholt (W&M) def. Chang/Nagato (WVU) – 6-2
No. 2 – Alhach/Van Meeteren (W&M) def. Bossi/Kovick (WVU) – 6-4
No. 3 – Stang/Fernald (W&M) vs. Kucharova/Lipatova (WVU) – DNF, 5-4
Finishing Order: 1, 2*
William & Mary 7, Norfolk State 0
Singles
No. 1 – Hedda Gurholt (W&M) def. Aleksandra Evdokimova – 6-0, 6-1
No. 2 – Elisa Van Meeteren (W&M) def. Amber Fuller (NSU) – 2-6, 6-0, 6-3
No. 3 – Raffaela Alhach (W&M) def. Breana Cook (NSU) – 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 – Emma Fernald (W&M) def. Laura Ruiz (NSU) – 6-3, 6-3
No. 5 – Lisa Fukutoku (W&M) def. Andrea Barcenas (NSU) – 6-0, 6-3
No. 6 – Kensie Cricchio (W&M) def. Zada McMorris (NSU) – 6-0, 6-0
Finishing Order: 6, 1, 4*, 3, 5, 2
Doubles
No. 1 – Saric/Gurholt (W&M) def. Cook/Fuller (NSU) – 6-0
No. 2 – Stange/Fernald (W&M) def. Evdokimova/Ruiz (NSU) – 6-1
No. 3 – Srinivasan/Monroe (W&M) vs. Barcenas/McMorris (NSU) – DNF, 4-3
Finishing Order: 1, 2*
Original source can be found here.
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