Junior Ané Dannhauser gets ready to serve.
Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose
The women’s tennis team lost 2-5 to the University of Findlay March 27 at home, and lost 3-4 to Tiffin University March 28 at home, bringing its season record to 6-8, and its conference record to 0-3.
“It’s obviously frustrating coming off of losses, but we’ve had the toughest start to our conference competition-wise,” head coach Melanie Zampardo said. “We played the top three teams right off the bat.”
Freshman Esther Sura fought through two 10-point tiebreaker singles matches. At No. 6 singles, she lost 5-7, 6-3, 0-1 to Findlay, but defeated the Dragons 6-3, 6-7, 1-0.
The Chargers lost all three doubles matches to Findlay.
“Especially after playing Findlay, I was a little low on energy, so the fact that I was able to pull it out gives me confidence that I can keep going and I can keep competing despite the circumstances,” Sura said.
The Chargers beat the Dragons in doubles, with junior Ané Dannhauser and sophomore Briana Rees winning 6-4 at No. 1 doubles. Sura and freshman Dimitra Papastavrou beat the Dragons 7-5 at No. 3 doubles.
“We were just out there fighting,” Sura said. “It didn’t matter if it was for clinch or not, we put everything out there, so I’m super proud of how we played.”
Initially, Papastavrou and Sura were down 2-5 in their match, but they stayed calm and won five games in a row, which allowed the Chargers to win the doubles point, according to Zampardo.
“I saw in their faces that they were ready to stay calm and confident, and just keep plucking away at points and doing what they could,” Zampardo said. “And they played so solid.”
Winning the doubles point allowed the team to move into their singles matches feeling energetic and positive, Zampardo said.
“It had been a minute since we’d gotten the doubles point, and so for two freshmen to be able to stay so composed like that together on court was such a proud moment,” Zampardo said.
At No. 5 singles, sophomore Julia Zlateva beat the Dragons 7-5, 6-2, and she beat Findlay 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 in a tiebreaker.
“I thought we did well in the difficult matches,” Zlateva said. “Pretty much all of them were super difficult, but we dealt with that, and we kept our composure.”
The Chargers will travel to Ohio to play Ashland University on April 3 at 2 p.m. The following day the team will play Cedarville University on April 4 at 1 p.m.
