Friday, March 15
Houston, Texas
11:00 am
Rice University
2
vs
4
#20 Pepperdine
Waves Hold Off Owls
3/15/2019 3:24:00 PM | Women's Tennis
20th ranked Pepperdine takes a 4-2 decision
The Lead: Anastasia Smirnova picked up her third straight singles win and Priya Niezgoda added a second win, but Rice could not overcome the loss of the doubles point and dropped a 4-2 decision to No. 20 Pepperdine at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Friday.
Doubles: Diae El Jardi and Linda Huang gave Rice (7-6) the early advantage with a 6-2 win at the third line. Pepperdine (7-3) rallied to win the last three games and take a 7-5 decision at the second position and then capture the point with a 6-4 win.
Singles: Anastasia Smirnova raced to huge lead at the No. 2 singles position and the Owls had grabbed three of the five singles sets decided before a lightning delay stopped play for 35 minutes. The lone set not decided prior to the delay was on court one when Victoria Smirnova and the Waves Ashley Lahey were locked in a tight battle. Anastasia maintained her momentum and tied the match with a straight set win, but Victoria dropped a lengthy deuce point immediately after play resumed and Lahey went on to take a tiebreak to win the first set. Niezgoda gave the Owls their only lead of the day with a straight-set win at four, but the Waves came back with wins at five, one and three to clinch the match.
Elizabeth Schmidt: "Looking at the scores, it was a really hard-fought battle. Our team left everything they had out on the court today and I'm proud of them for that. I really wish for our team we could have pulled out the team win. They were really close today to making that happen, but I know if we keep playing with the intensity and with the attitude, mindset and focus that we saw today, but with a little more consistency, then there are a lot of great things ahead for us. We improved today from our last match and we'll look to do more of that on Sunday. In doubles and in singles, we put ourselves in position to get the doubles point and then in position to get the four points for the win. Credit to Pepperdine, they played a very physical and gritty match and found a way to make that one extra ball. (on the weather delay) It's a tough situation, we flipped a set at six and they flipped it at three. It was a really long, hard-fought deuce point on one that Lahey played a really great point. Vicki did everything she could. It was a new experience for our team and I'm sure it was for their team as well. I thought everyone handled it pretty well. That's part of tennis and the experience will make us stronger. We learned a lot today and I hope our team realizes that if they keep up their hard work and attitude, there are a lot of great things ahead for us."
Up Next: Rice hosts Dartmouth at 11 a.m. on St. Patrick's Day at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
Doubles: Diae El Jardi and Linda Huang gave Rice (7-6) the early advantage with a 6-2 win at the third line. Pepperdine (7-3) rallied to win the last three games and take a 7-5 decision at the second position and then capture the point with a 6-4 win.
Singles: Anastasia Smirnova raced to huge lead at the No. 2 singles position and the Owls had grabbed three of the five singles sets decided before a lightning delay stopped play for 35 minutes. The lone set not decided prior to the delay was on court one when Victoria Smirnova and the Waves Ashley Lahey were locked in a tight battle. Anastasia maintained her momentum and tied the match with a straight set win, but Victoria dropped a lengthy deuce point immediately after play resumed and Lahey went on to take a tiebreak to win the first set. Niezgoda gave the Owls their only lead of the day with a straight-set win at four, but the Waves came back with wins at five, one and three to clinch the match.
Elizabeth Schmidt: "Looking at the scores, it was a really hard-fought battle. Our team left everything they had out on the court today and I'm proud of them for that. I really wish for our team we could have pulled out the team win. They were really close today to making that happen, but I know if we keep playing with the intensity and with the attitude, mindset and focus that we saw today, but with a little more consistency, then there are a lot of great things ahead for us. We improved today from our last match and we'll look to do more of that on Sunday. In doubles and in singles, we put ourselves in position to get the doubles point and then in position to get the four points for the win. Credit to Pepperdine, they played a very physical and gritty match and found a way to make that one extra ball. (on the weather delay) It's a tough situation, we flipped a set at six and they flipped it at three. It was a really long, hard-fought deuce point on one that Lahey played a really great point. Vicki did everything she could. It was a new experience for our team and I'm sure it was for their team as well. I thought everyone handled it pretty well. That's part of tennis and the experience will make us stronger. We learned a lot today and I hope our team realizes that if they keep up their hard work and attitude, there are a lot of great things ahead for us."
Up Next: Rice hosts Dartmouth at 11 a.m. on St. Patrick's Day at the George R. Brown Tennis Center.
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Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
1
Failla, Jessica/ Iamachkine,Anastasia (17/-) [PEPPW]
6
4
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
Lahey, Ashley / 0 (56/-) [PEPPW]
76
62
#2 Singles Match
12
Lekaj, Adrijana / 0 [PEPPW]
21
66
#3 Singles Match
123
Failla, Jessica / 0 (61/-) [PEPPW]
466
630
#4 Singles Match
12
Takamura, Satsuki / 0 [PEPPW]
23
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Kuczer, Daria / 0 [PEPPW]
66
14
#6 Singles Match
1234
Iamachkine,Anastasia / 0 [PEPPW]
6430
342UF
Order of Finish:
2,4,5,1,3
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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