Women's Tennis Falls 6-1 Against North Florida

NEW ORLEANS – For the first time this season, the University of New Orleans women's tennis team played against an opponent that qualified for the 2016 NCAA National Tournament on Saturday afternoon, falling 6-1 against the University of North Florida.

Against the reigning A-SUN champions, the Privateers' (1-2) lone point of the afternoon came via freshman Claudette Gilhespie at the fourth singles position with a 7-5, 7-6 (10-3) victory over Luise Intert, extending her undefeated streak in singles play to three matches.

"I thought we competed very well against a good opponent that won their conference and reached the NCAA tournament last season," head coach Burzis Kanga said. "North Florida gave us a lot of opportunities to take the momentum from them but we couldn't execute. There are still some areas we need to improve on, and we will work on those this week and look for a better result in our next match."

Along with playing their first match against a team that reached the national tournament, the contest also featured the first time a Privateer was tasked with taking on an opponent ranked nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association this season in 58^th-ranked Michelle Valdez. Playing at North Florida's (3-2) top singles position, sophomore Trang Dao was pitted against the ranked player and came close to forcing a third set after losing the opener 6-4 with a tied 6-6 score in the second stanza but lost the tiebreaker 10-5.

The Privateers gave North Florida competitive first sets on courts three through six, with all four ending in 7-5 scores. Senior Anna Segarra Rius and sophomore Paula Garriga, playing at the third and sixth positions, lost the second set 6-4 while sophomore Brittany Johnson lost 6-3 at the fifth slot and Gilhespie prevailing 7-6 (10-3) on court four. Junior Anja Luethi, playing at the second flight, lost 6-2, 6-1 to Quetzail Vazquez.

North Florida claimed the doubles point with victories on courts two and three. The visitors prevailed 6-2 over Dao and senior Yasmine Rashad 6-2 at the second position and took a competitive 7-5 outing at the third flight over Johnson and Gilhespie. At the top slot, Luethi and Segarra Rius trailed 6-5 against the Ospreys top doubles unit before the match was waved off.

The Privateers are back in action on Friday, Feb. 10 when they host Loyola University (New Orleans) at 2 p.m.
 
University of North Florida 6, University of New Orleans 1
 
Doubles
1. Anja Luethi/Anna Segarra Rius (UNO) vs. Lucia Montano/Quetzali Vazquez (UNF) 5-6, unfinished
2. Luise Intert/Rafael Gomez (UNF) def. Trang Dao/Yasmine Rashad (UNO) 6-2
3. Michelle Valdez/Irina Karangozishvili (UNF) def. Brittany Johnson/Claudette Gilhespie (UNO) 7-5
 
Singles
1. #58 Michelle Valdez (UNF) def. Trang Dao (UNO) 6-4, 7-6 (10-5)
2. Quetzail Vazquez (UNF) def. Anja Luethi (UNO) 6-2, 6-1
3. Rafaela Gomez (UNF) def. Anna Segarra Rius (UNO) 7-5, 6-4
4. Claudette Gilhespie (UNO) def. Luise Intert (UNF) 7-5, 7-6 (10-3)
5. Kinga Gartner (UNF) def. Brittany Johnson  (UNO) 7-5, 6-3
6. Irina Karangozishvili (UNF) def. Paula Garriga (UNO) 7-5, 6-4