NEW ORLEANS – A milestone win for
Trang Dao and a strong performance in doubles helped guide the New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team (12-9, 5-5) to a 4-3 win over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (13-6, 6-4) on Sunday at the University Tennis Center.
Dao won her 50
th career singles match, becoming the fourth women's tennis player in program history to achieve that milestone since 2000. Her win at flight one sealed the match for New Orleans. After gutting out a 7-5 first set, Dao rallied back from down 3-0 in the second set to win 6-4.
"What a milestone and T.K. deserves it," said Coach
Burzis Kanga. "She has been such a factor for us and she's a smart player. I think this is a combined team effort and a very talented team. Nothing this team does surprises me because I know the talent level and the fight. We're playing really good tennis. We just need to keep this momentum going."
The day started with the Privateers coming back to win the doubles point. After the Islanders picked up a win at flight three,
Lea Alguacil and
Claudette Gilhespie engineered a 6-2 win. Then Dao and
Ank Vullings held strong in a match that went down to a tiebreaker. The duo dominated the doubles deciding point 7-2.
In singles, the Islanders won the first point with a straight set victory at flight three. However, New Orleans seized the momentum from that point.
It started with Alguacil who dominated her first set at flight five. She wound up taking her match in straight sets 6-1, 6-4. Vullings followed closely behind with a 6-3, 6-4 victory of her own.
Dao was able to seal the match for the Privateers after rallying from an early second set deficit against Carolina Bulatovic. The win is the first for New Orleans in eight meetings against the Islanders.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi closed the day by winning third sets at flight four and flight six.
The Privateers will head to Southeastern for their final conference match of the regular season on Tuesday, Apr. 16.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow
@PrivateersTN on Twitter,
@UNOPrivateers on Instagram, like
/NewOrleansTennis on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
