The women’s tennis team came out on top of another conference opponent Sunday by defeating University of Las Vegas Rebels 5-2.The Frogs added to their perfect conference record to make it 3-0, while ending UNLV’s 4-0 conference streak.
Although the score indicated a solid win for TCU, the fight for it was much more difficult.
TCU lost the doubles point after the sixth-ranked team of sophomore Anna Sydorska and senior Ana Cetnik fell to 35th-ranked Elena Gantcheva and Kristina Nedeltcheva.
Falling behind 1-3, Cetnik and Sydorska inched their way back to 4-2, but couldn’t hang on and were defeated 5-8.
Junior Andrea Morgado and senior Karine Ionesco also lost their doubles match 6-8 after giving up a 4-3 lead.
TCU’s pairing of junior Kewa Nichols and freshman Nina Munch-Soegaard started their doubles match off slow with several wide shots, but clawed their way back to win 8-6 on a 40-love game.
The Rebels earned their second point against the Frogs when Sydorska, ranked No. 54 nationally, lost her singles match against Gantcheva (6-1, 6-1), UNLV’s top player.
At a match against No. 1 Stanford on March 28, Gantcheva upset her No. 11-ranked opponent and earned the Mountain West Conference player of the Week award.
However, Sydorska’s loss was the only one in singles for TCU.
Cetnik bounded back from her doubles loss and earned a quick win in the No. 3 spot (6-3,6-1). It was Cetnik’s last home game ever.
Like the overall score, junior Kewa Nichols’ win (6-3,6-3) was not indicative of her hard-fought match against UNLV player Claire Smith.
“It was a lot closer than the score looked,” Nichols said. “I was just hitting the ball trying to get her to miss.”
With the overall score tied 2-2 after Nichols’ and Cetnik’s wins, TCU needed to win two out of the three courts still playing.
Morgado closed out her match on the fifth court 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 to give TCU the one-up, and Munch-Soegaard came through in a clinch after letting her opponent force the match to a third set.
Munch-Soegaard won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on a 40-30 game when her Rebels opponent faulted both her serves.
And to put the icing on the cake, Ionesco won on the sixth court 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the longest singles match of the day.
Head coach Jefferson Hammond said the Rebels came out strong early on, but his team reacted well and fought hard.
“Each match was a battle, but our girls took them on,” Hammond said.
The Frogs will travel to Salt Lake City on April 6 to play their next conference opponent, the Utah Utes.
