The women’s tennis team start to the season was not as they hoped as they lost their first match to North Carolina. However, they had a chance to get back on track as they faced the Virginia Tech Hokies on Sunday.
“Our goal is to win the conference and conference championship,” said head coach Ricardo Rojas. “During the week we watched a lot of film and worked on match situations putting the girls in a lot of pressure situations.”
This season the Bucs team is fairly young with five underclassmen. Rojas believes that each player will have to contribute as a leader for the team.
In singles play the team finished very strong.
To begin singles play Raquel Amaro (Caracas, Venezeula) struck first winning her first set 6-1 and for her second set, she won 6-2.
Virginia Tech tied the series winning the next match. The Hokies followed that up by winning the next set to take a 2-1 lead over the Bucs.
Laylo Bakhodirova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) responded for the Bucs by winning both her sets 6-3 to tie the match series 2-2. With a chance to take the lead the Bucs did just that as Andrea Pascual-Larrinaga (Basauri, Spain) won both her sets 6-4 giving the Bucs a 3-2 series lead.
“We fought very hard despite being down early we were up in those matches,” said Rojas. “The girls showed great composure closing them out.”
To conclude singles play Alejandra Morales (Santiago, Chile) finished for the Bucs. Morales won her first set 6-3 with momentum in the Bucs favor. The second set Morales came through for the Bucs winning a tough set 6-4. Advancing into the doubles play the Bucs led the series 4-2.
“Doubles is still an area we need to focus on as we lost both matches we played,” said Rojas. “It’s definitely an area we need to improve and are working to improve.”
Virginia Tech owned doubles play winning two of the three matches 6-2. The one series the Bucs were close went unfinished with both pairs tied 5-5.
The Bucs handed Virginia Tech its first loss to start the season. After winning the match 4-3 the Bucs improved to 1-1 for the season.
