NEW ORLEANS – The Northwestern State women's tennis program fell to New Orleans 5-2 Sunday afternoon, dropping to 3-2 in Southland Conference competition.
 
Sophomore Iryna Vardanian celebrated her birthday on Thursday and gave herself the gift of a perfect weekend. The Ukraine native gutted out a 7-6, 7-5 singles victory and 6-3 doubles win to improve to a perfect 4-0 weekend record.
 
Vardanian's nine singles victories are good for most on the team and she is now 3-0 in doubles against Southland opponents.
 
The Lady Demons (10-5, 3-2 SLC) started the match on the right foot, taking the doubles point from the Privateers (10-3, 4-1 SLC) with a pair of strong showings in positions two and three.
 
"Iryna Vardanian and Emilija Dancetovic showed strong character and great body language the whole match," head coach Olga Bazhanova said. We had very good process in doubles, but we didn't execute well in singles."
 
Freshmen Kateryna Avram and Vladislava Litvinova rolled 6-0 in the No. 3 position while Vardanian and freshman Judit Castillo played well again together, winning 6-3.
 
Vardanian's singles victory over New Orleans' Anja Luethi in the No. 2 singles position proved to be the only singles point scored on the afternoon for the Lady Demons.
 
Junior Polina Ivanova fell in a three set match against UNO's Trang Dao 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in the No. 1 singles position.
 
Freshman Emilija Dancetovic was in a tightly contested 4-6, 6-3, 1-1 match with Anna Segarra Ruis when she was forced to retire in the No. 3 position.
 
The Lady Demons will play on the road at 12 p.m. next Saturday, March 25 at Stephen F. Austin (7-7, 3-3 SLC). NSU will then play Lamar University (8-4, 2-1) in Lafayette for a neutral site makeup match on Wednesday, March 29.
 
A full box score of today's match will be posted when provided by New Orleans. 
 

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New Orleans 5, Northwestern State 2

Singles competition
1. Trang Dao (UNO) def. Polina Ivanova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
2. Iryna Vardanian (NSU) def. Anja Luethi 7-6 (7-3), 7-5
3. Anna Segarra Rius (UNO) def. Emilija Dancetovic 4-6, 6-3, 1-1, retired
4. Claudette Gilhespie (UNO) def. Vladislava Litvinova 6-4, 7-5
5. Brittany Johnson (UNO) def. Judit Castillo 7-5, 6-4
6. Yasmine Rashad (UNO) def. Kateryna Avram 6-1, 6-0

Doubles competition
1. Anja Luethi/Anna Segarra Rius (UNO) def. Polina Ivanova/Emilija Dancetovic 6-3
2. Iryna Vardanian/Judit Castillo (NSU) def. Trang Dao/Yasmine Rashad 6-3
3. Kateryna Avram/Vladislava Litvinova (NSU) def. Brittany Johnson/Claudette Gilhespie 6-0

Match Notes:
Northwestern State 10-5, 3-2 SLC
New Orleans 10-3, 4-1 SLC
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (6,5,4,1,2,3)