After opening conference play on the road and falling to No. 6 Duke, 7-0, Thursday, the women’s tennis team returned to the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center and defeated Florida International, 4-3, Saturday.
Olsen said his team rebounded well from the Duke loss. ”This was a good win,” Olsen said. “FIU is a solid team. For our team, it’s a good confidence builder. Everyone contributed all away around and that equaled a close match going into our favor.” State was without senior Daria Petrovic, who was out with an injury for a second straight match. The Wolfpack won two out of the three double matches, earning the Pack its first point of the afternoon. Sophmore Sandhya Nagaraj and senior Berkley Brock defeated FIU’s Liset Brito and Maria Vallasciani, 8-5 while junior Lenka Hojckova and Tana Illova, beat Magali Hold and Christine Seredni 8-4.
In singles, Olsen said the girls maintained good focus and needed some competitive energy to finish several close sets. ”The girls put in some extra preparation yesterday,” Olsen said. “We worked on some things individually and I thought that it gave them a little bit of an edge going into today.” Nagaraj was the first to finish in singles play, taking down Brito, 6-2, 6-4. Hojckova followed behind her with another Pack singles victory, defeating Spenceley 6-3, 6-3. State’s 3-0 lead would not be safe for long. Senior Berkeley Brock fell to Christine Seredni 6-3, 6-3. Then, Priscilla Castillo took down State’s Tana Illova 7-6 (3), 6-0. Castillo’s win gave the Panthers a fighting chance as it only needed to take two more singles matches. It came down to the No. 5 singles match, but freshman Chloe Smith’s singles win over Florida International’s Magali Holt 6-2, 6-3, sealed the State team victory over the Panthers, 4-3. Smith said she didn’t know she was involved in the deciding match while she was on the court. ”I didn’t know how everyone else was doing,” Smith said. “I was just trying to focus on my match and see if I could pull one out.” Olsen felt Smith’s win would be a confidence builder for her. ”She played a really solid match. She had the right game plan,” Olsen said. “She was hitting a lot of high, heavy balls to set up some attacking shots for her. I thought she served well, she moved well. She played a solid match, and that wore her opponent down.” Hojckova said Smith remained focused throughout her match and it worked for her. ”She played really well,” Hojckova said. “She kept her focus on her feet moving really well and it was working for her, so it was good.” The Wolfpack heads back into conference play next. The team will travel to Chapel Hill Thursday to take on the No. 1 Tar Heels.
