The Mountaineers turned their season back on track on Friday in the most polarizing way.
After earning one point across four matches to open Big 12 Conference play, West Virginia took down Cincinnati 7-0 at home. Just one singles match went to a third set.
Graduate student Ting-Pei Chang and junior Tatiana Lipatova set the tone with a 6-1 doubles victory to start the day. The successful pair of sophomore Maja Dodik and freshman Maya Bordereau followed suit to win their first doubles match in March.
Dodik and Bordereau’s 6-4 victory earned the Mountaineers the doubles point, something WVU has not had in a loss this season. Senior Momoko Nagato and junior Michaela Kucharova led their match 5-4 when the doubles round ended.
In singles, graduate student Love-Star Alexis broke her personal 10-match losing streak as the one seed. Alexis got the job done quick, too, winning 6-2, 6-4. Alexis, a Middle Tennessee State transfer, continues to fill in at court one for Camilla Bossi, who remains away from the team.
The only Mountaineer to finish before Alexis in singles was Michaela Kucharova, who played her first match as the fourth seed against freshman Bearcat Sakuraka Watanabe. Kucharova won the match 6-0, 6-2.
With five wins now and just one loss, Kucharova remains a promising rotation force in her small sample size of eight matches. Similarly, Tatiana Lipatova’s 6-2, 6-4 victory on court six kept her with just one loss in nine singles matches this year.
The lone match going past two sets was won 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (5) by Maja Dodik on court three. Dodik has fluctuated between the third and sixth seeds throughout the season and is now 2-1-1 at the peak of that range.
For all players besides Lipatova, a singles win at Cincinnati meant a first Big 12 victory of the year. In the Mountaineers’ first four conference matches, three opponents were ranked No. 30 or above by the ITA. TCU, West Virginia’s sole unranked opponent, now sits at No. 65 on the rankings, three spots above the Mountaineers.
With a newfound Big 12 sweep in its possession, WVU Tennis will look to resurge back to the top of the conference standings in the coming weeks. That mission continues this weekend at home against Houston Friday at 5 p.m. and against UCF on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Final Scores vs. Cincinnati
Doubles Results
- Momoko Nagato and Michaela Kucharova WVU) vs. Rozalia Gruszczynska and Gabrielle Guenther (UC), 5-4 (unfinished)
- Maja Dodik and Maya Bordereau (WVU) def. Vic de Samucewicz and Callie Flanagan (UC), 6-4
- Ting-Pei Chang and Tatiana Lipatova (WVU) def. Morgan Pyrz and Sakurako Watanabe (UC), 6-1
Singles Results
- Love-Star Alexis (WVU) def. Rozalia Gruszczynska (UC), 6-2, 6-4
- Maya Bordereau (WVU) def. Vic de Samucewicz (UC), 6-4, 6-2
- Maja Dodik (WVU) def. Gabrielle Guenther (UC), 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (5)
- Michaela Kucharova (WVU) def. Sakurako Watanabe (UC), 6-0, 6-2
- Ting-Pei Chang (WVU) def. Callie Flanagan (UC), 6-1, 6-4
- Tatiana Lipatova (WVU) def. Isabel Pacheco (UC), 6-2, 6-4
Photo from WVU Women’s Tennis
