Women’s tennis comes up short this past weekend

The outcomes were not in the Vikings’ favor for the women’s tennis team this weekend. On Friday afternoon, the Viks lost 5-2 in a tough match against the Seattle Redhawks. The team was unable to get any ground on Sunday against Washington State, when the Vikings fell in a shutout 7-0 loss.

On Friday, the consistent duo of freshman Yuki Sugiyama and senior Anya Dalkin gave PSU their only doubles win, and Sugiyama also grabbed her 10th individual win alongside a win from junior Marti Pellicano. Sugiyama is now the first women’s player since 1998 to attain the double-digit win mark.

In the doubles match on Friday, Sugiyama and Dalkin were able to send their match into a tiebreaker after they finished the regular match ahead 8-7. In the tiebreaker, the pair again kept the momentum and defeated the Redhawk’s pair of junior Katrina Schwab and freshman Corinne Wurden 8-6.

In the singles action against Seattle, it took Sugiyama all three matches to secure a win, but the freshman put on a tough, gritty performance. Head Coach Jay Sterling describes Sugiyama as a persistent player who brings her best effort to the court every match, and in her win over Seattle senior Ariel Ohno, she did just that.

Sugiyama controlled the opening set 6-2, but Ohno came back in the second frame, narrowly defeating Sugiyama 6-4. In the end, Sugiyama had the final word, as she claimed victory in the final set and won with a third-set score of 6-3. Later, in the four position, Pellicano grabbed the only other singles victory for the Viks, as she defeated Redhawk freshman Anna Lambert with scores of 6-4 both sets.

The Redhawk’s win marks the sixth consecutive win for the team and the end of their regular season, as they now await their Great West Conference Tournament at the end of April.

On Friday, the Vikings, 4-10 overall and 1-3 conference, came up with multiple close-set losses, but still had control on the court. On Sunday, however, the team was unable to make its presence known when it took on Washington State during the Cougar’s senior night.

The first line pairing of Sugiyama and Dalkin opened the day with what appeared to be a match that would end in the Vikings’ favor, but the partners came up short and left the court with an 8-4 defeat. The Cougars went on the sweep the doubles category, giving the home team the opening point.

In the singles division, the Cougars continued their dominance as they held the Viks close to scoreless for much of the matches. Freshman Marina Todd was the only PSU player to get more than one point on the board with her 6-2, 6-1 scores.

Both of the weekend’s games were non-conference, so the losses will not affect the team’s Big Sky standings. PSU is currently sitting in seventh place ahead of Eastern Washington and Idaho State.

The Vikings hit the road again next weekend as they move back into conference matches against fourth-ranked Northern Arizona at 9 a.m. on Sunday. This match begins the final three matches in the regular season, with Sac State and Eastern Washington rounding off the season. ?