MIDLAND, Mich. – The Purdue Northwest women's tennis team rode a strong start in doubles play to dominate Saginaw Valley State 5-2 for the Pride's first GLIAC victory of the season.
PNW (5-11, 1-4 GLIAC) got on the scoreboard early with a 1-0 lead thanks to taking the doubles point courtesy of a sweep in all three flights at the Greater Midland Tennis Center over the Cardinals (5-10, 0-6 GLIAC).
Patricia Dizon (Arlington Heights, Ill./St. Viator) and
Sienna Lopez (Glendale Heights, Ill.) disposed of Sara Neves and Joanne Gao by a 6-3 mark in the No. 1 singles flight. Dizon and Lopez are now 3-3 together on the season as a pair and have won their last two doubles matches.
Oona Kintscher (Berlin, Germany) and
Hayley Tsuen (Johannesburg, South Africa) were even more impressive in their No. 2 doubles flight outing as they defeated SVSU's Chelsea Dzenga and Elizabeth Stuart 6-2 to pick up their second win in five matches together.
With the doubles point already in hand, PNW's
Nicole Uzcategui (Doral, Fla.) and
Salma Raslan (Cairo, Egypt) earned their first win together defeating Nicole Johnson and Alexis Anthes 6-4.
Then, Raslan put PNW up 2-0 as she defeated Elizabeth Stuart in straight sets 6-0, 6-0. The win improved her individual record to 4-8 on the season.
Lopez was just as impressive taking down Neves 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 1 singles flight to improve her record to 7-6 on the season against No. 1 Singles opposition.
Kintscher's 7-5, 6-4 victory over Gao in the No. 2 singles flight not only improved her individual record to 6-4 on the season, but it also wrapped up the team victory for the Pride.
Mar Vilanova (Girona, Spain) concluded the PNW victory with a 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10) victory over Adiya Young in No. 6 singles action with the third set being a super tiebreaker that she won 10-5 after the team match had already been wrapped up. The win was the second in as many attempts for Vilanova in her young PNW career.
Dizon and Tsuen battled in their respective singles matches and had chances to pull out a victory, but their SVSU competition proved to be a little too much to overcome.
UP NEXT
PNW will travel to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to take on Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech next weekend. The Lake Superior State match will begin at 9 a.m. EDT on Fri., April 15 while the matchup against Michigan Tech is slated for a 2 p.m. first serve on Sat., April 16.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Women's Tennis, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
