FLUSHING, N.Y. – Return to play for the first time since October, the Queens College women's tennis team matched up against the University of Findlay Oilers inside the QC Indoor Tennis Bubble Wednesday afternoon.
The Knights entered the match ranked #28 in the latest ITA National Poll, while the Oilers were ranked #12 in the country.
Queens would take the doubles point earning victories at #2 and #3, but the Oilers would win five of the six singles with four of the six singles going the distance to defeat the Knights to the final score of 5-2.
The Knights move to 6-2 overall on the year.
DOUBLES ACTION
Queens fell behind 1-0 in doubles action as the #1 senior doubles pair
Maja Makal (Bialystok, Poland) and
Saga Berggren (Uddevalla, Sweden) dropped their match to the score of 4-6 against nationally-ranked #27 Valentina Salek and Polina Zaytseva.
But the Knights would fight back as graduate student
Kyra Bergmann (Forest Hills, N.Y.) and rookie
Sakura Saito (Chiba, Japan) earned a 6-3 victory over Anamarija Kovacevic and Charlie Croteau at #3 doubles to tie doubles play at 1-1.
In a back-and-forth match at #2 doubles, the duo of graduate student
Eva Rivoal (Saint-Denis-de-Pile, France) and junior
Apolline Lamy (Toulouse, France) earned a thrilling 7-5 victory over Elina Ivanova and Audrey Ouellet to take a 1-0 lead into singles play.
SINGLES ACTION
The Oilers would tie the match as Makal at #1 singles fell 2-6, 5-7 against nationally-ranked #13 Kovacevic.
Berggren would drop her match at #5 singles against Ivanova Lucero to the score of 3-6, 3-6 as the visitors took a 2-1 match lead.
The final four matches would all go the distance as Bergmann fell short in a hard-fought three-set battle against Lidia Laskova to the score of 6-1, 0-6, 3-6 at #6 singles as the Oilers took a 3-1 lead.
The Oilers would earn the match victory as Lamy fell in a three-set battle against Salek to the score of 6-3, 4-6, 3-6 at #4 singles.
Rivoal would complete her 2-0 day as she earned a 6-2, 0-6, 7-5 victory over Zaytseva at #2 singles.
Senior
Caroline Hany-Fawzy (Alexandria, Egypt) matching up against nationally ranked #43 Ivanova would take her match into the third set having dropped the first set 2-6 before earning a 6-4 second set victory. But the senior would fall short of the victory as she dropped the third set to the score of 1-6 as the Oilers earned a 5-2 victory.
NEXT MATCH
The Knights return to action on the road on Saturday, Mar. 15 as they match up against Division I foe Fordham University Rams. The first serve is set for noon.
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