Jan. 23, 2010

Final Stats

LUBBOCK, Texas - Sophomore Mariam Kurdadze and freshman Emma Levy posted individual singles wins, but it was not enough as the Tulane University women's tennis team dropped a heart-breaker to No. 73 Texas Tech Saturday afternoon.

In a match that began at the McLeod Tennis Center and later shifted indoors to the Lubbock Country Club due to rain in the area, the Green Wave fell behind 3-0 before posting wins on Courts 1 and 3 to cut the deficit to one. Tulane had a chance to tie the match with a victory on Court 4 where the Red Raiders' Natalie Leitch and Green Wave sophomore Lindsay Dvorak split the first two sets, but Leitch won the third set, 6-3, to account for the final score.

"Obviously, today was a very disappointing day for us," Tulane head women's tennis coach Terri Sisk said. "I thought we did a lot of things right and we had Texas Tech right where we wanted them. It was a great college atmosphere and you want to play matches like these. It was very intense and very loud. There were a lot of fans there.

"Lindsay did a great job of battling, but she just didn't come out on the right end of the victory. The big picture for us is this - we realize today that we belong in the rankings. We are doing things right."

Texas Tech got off to a red hot start as Lorena Aviles defeated sophomore Marcela Fonseca on Court 6, 6-2, 6-2, Kelsy Garland dropped sophomore Elizabeth Hamlin on Court 2, 6-4, 6-1 and Caroline Starck swept freshman Hila Elster on Court 5, 6-3, 6-2.

Kurdadze put the Green Wave on the board with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Sandra Dynka in No. 1 singles action to make it 3-1. Levy dropped her first set to Elizabeth Ullathome, 6-4, but bounced back to tie the match with a 6-0 win. From there, inclement weather forced the teams to move indoor. The change of venue, however, did little to cool Levy as the Green Wave rookie posted her second win in as many days with a 6-4, set-three victory to set up the match-deciding dramatics on Court 4.

Leitch, the No. 20 ranked singles player in the ITA Texas Region, won her opening set, 8-6, before Dvorak answered with a 6-4 win in set two to send the contest into a third and final frame. If Dvorak had won, the overall match would have come down to a yet-to-be played doubles point, but Leitch's 6-3 win ended the competition.

"You sometimes worry that when you lose a match like this - it was a tough match and things were very emotional - and you wonder how the kids are going to respond," Sisk said. "The best thing about this team is that when we got in the van after the match was over, they were already talking about Monday's practice and what they want to do.

"This one stung. This one stung really bad, but we're going to get better. We're going to regroup on Monday, we're going to address our weaknesses and we're going to make that turn in the right direction."

The Green Wave return to action on Saturday, Feb. 6, when they open the home portion of their schedule against Southeastern Louisiana at 1 p.m. in the Goldring Tennis Center. Admission to all regular-season Tulane tennis matches is free.

No. 73 TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (2-0) DEF. TULANE GREEN WAVE (1-1), 4-2

SINGLES
No. 1 - Mariam Kurdadze (Tulane) def. Sandra Dynka (Texas Tech) - 7-5, 6-1
No. 2 - Kelsy Garland (Texas Tech) def. Elizabeth Hamlin (Tulane) - 6-4, 6-1
No. 3 - Emma Levy (Tulane) def. Elizabeth Ullathome (Texas Tech) - 4-6, 6-0, 6-4
No. 4 - Natalie Leitch (Texas Tech) def. Lindsay Dvorak (Tulane) - 8-6, 4-6, 6-3
No. 5 - Caroline Starck (Texas Tech) def. Hila Elster (Tulane) - 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 - Lorena Aviles (Texas Tech) def. Marcela Fonseca (Tulane) - 6-2, 6-2

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