NEW ORLEANS – Northwestern State took an early lead in the Southland Conference standings Saturday with its second road win of the league season.
The Lady Demons fought off a pesky UNO squad in a 4-3 win.
NSU (9-4, 2-0 SLC) is one of five teams in the eight-team tennis league to play two matches in the first two weeks, and the Lady Demons picked up wins at Southeastern and at UNO.
"It was a long match at more than three-and-a-half hours, and it was great to a win a match that was so mentally and physically challenging against another team with championship hopes," said NSU coach
Jonas Brobeck. "It's great to start 2-0 on the road on the road with two matches coming up at home this week.
"We'll see a much-improved UIW team on Friday and then get a really impressive Texas A&M-Corpus Christi team on Sunday, and ."
The middle of NSU's singles lineup carried the day as the Lady Demons secured the victory with points from No. 3
Mariella Minetti, No. 4
Ayu Ishibashi and No. 5
Viktorie Wojcikova.
Minetti's point secured the victory with a three-set win against Estelle Vanthier (5-7, 7-5, 6-2). Minetti rebounded from a first-set loss and outlasted Vanthier to give NSU a 4-2 win.
Ishibashi handed NSU back the lead with a 6-3, 7-5 against Salma Abdelrahim as NSU snatched a 2-1 lead. The eight lost games is more against Ishibashi than her six previous singles and doubles matches combined (six).
Wojcikova gutted out a 6-2, 7-6 win against Mar Gendra for NSU's third point.
NSU improved to 29-13 in singles slots No. 3-6.
"We knew depth was going to be a strength of ours this season," Brobeck said. "
UNO garnered singles at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6 slots.
Lea Alguacil tied the match 1-1 with a win over
Gig Kanaphuet (6-1, 6-0) in the No. 6 position.
UNO's Ank Vullings picked up a No. 1 win with a 6-3, 6-0 decision against Rozalie Dohnalova.
After the match was decided, UNO's Lina Hohnhold finished a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory against
Tjasa Klevisar to make the final score 4-3.
NSU started the match by winning the doubles point, taking two doubles matches and led the third when the point was decided.
The Lady Demons have swept the doubles in each of the last four matches.
Dohnalova/Wojcikova overcame Vullings/Vanthier 6-1 before Klevisar/Minetti topped Hohnhold/Abdelrahim 6-3 to secure the point.
Polanska/Ishibashi were leading 5-3 against UNO's pair of Gendra/Alguacil.
"The doubles point is so crucial when you're in a 50-50 match like the one today," Brobeck said. "We had great play in doubles, and we played with a simple yet confident mentality.
"We took that confidence into singles play."
