Women’s tennis earns weekend split

By Justin Sucher
Western Herald

In the final homestand of the year, the Western Michigan University women’s tennis team closed out its regular season schedule by splitting with Miami University of Ohio and Ball State University.

On Friday, the Broncos (19-7, 6-2 MAC) lost a heartbreaker to the Miami Red Hawks, 4-3, which ended any chance of a fifth straight regular season MAC Championship.

“We played a fantastic match against [Miami],” said coach Betsy Kuhle.  “We really battled and just came up a bit short.”

In doubles play, juniors Emily Dudzik and Yumi Matsuto earned the lone victory with an 8-3 win over Stephanie Danesis and Megan Martzolf.  The undefeated duo of sophomore Amanda Moccia and  senior Kerstin Pahl fell for the first time this season, 9-7, to Anastasia Dracheva and Monica Gorny at No. 2 doubles.  Senior Ashley Moccia and freshman Maria Nivia came up short, 8-5, against Reikie Honiball and Brintney Larson.

The Broncos went on to win three of the six singles matches, but it proved to be too little too late.  Kerstin Pahl earned yet another victory over Monica Gorny, 6-3, 6-2, at the top spot. Anastasia Dracheva defeated the Broncos’ Emily Dudzik, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 2 singles. Ashley Moccia was unable to secure the victory in three sets, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6, against Stephanie Danesis and Maria Nivia fell short against Megan Martzolf, 6-2, 6-1.  Amanda Moccia and Yumi Matsuto tried to keep the Broncos’ chances alive with victories in three sets, but the Red Hawks prevailed.

“We’ve seen the most growth from our returning non-senior players this year,” said Kuhle.

Following the loss to Miami, the Broncos came out strong against Ball State, winning 7-0, handing the Cardinals their eighth loss in the MAC.  Before the match, seniors Pahl and Ashley Moccia were honored.

“Hats off to our seniors,” said Kuhle.  “They’ve provided us with such leadership, both in practice and matches and have really kept us going everyday.”

The Broncos, only losing four matches total, were able to easily earn the doubles point.

The new combination of Pahl and Matsuto defeated Dena Boulieris and Georgina Thomson, 8-1. Dudzik and freshman Jenny Nalepa took care of business against Hayley Kall and Kylee Johnson, 8-3, and sisters Ashley and Amanda Moccia defeated Sarah Hebble and Rachel Surowiec, 8-0.

“Whenever we’ve lost this year, we’ve come back stronger and it showed today,” said Pahl.  “Now that we’re in the tournament, we won’t have the chance to come back stronger after a loss anymore.”

In singles play, the Broncos were able to sweep all six matches. Pahl defeated Sarah Hebble, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 1. Dudzik was victorious, 6-3, 6-2, over Dena Boulieris at the second spot.  Ashley Moccia was able to win her match after moving up to three singles against Kylee Johnson, 6-1, 7-5.  Amanda Moccia was superb in a 6-0, 6-0 beating of Hanna Oman and Matsuto earned the point by forfeit at the sixth spot.

“There were times when we played well this weekend and there were times where we didn’t play as well,” said Ashley Moccia.  “It was a bit disappointing to finish third this year after winning the conference in my first three years, but the past is the past.  We have to be more consistent if we want to be successful next weekend.”

Heading into the MAC Tournament, WMU will have either the second or third seed.

“When you’re this far along in the season, there isn’t too much that you can change that you haven’t been able to do thus far,” said Kuhle.  “I feel that we’re in good shape and if we play steady, consistent tennis, we should be fine.”

“We know that we can beat [Miami] and [Buffalo],” said Pahl.  “We can’t worry about what happened in the past and now that we’ve seen them once, we’ll know what to expect if we play them.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Apr 20 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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