CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas –
Ank Vullings earned a point in singles but the New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team could not overcome the Northwestern State Lady Demons, falling 4-1 in the first round of the Southland Conference tournament on Thursday at the Thomas J. Henry Center.
The doubles point went to Northwestern State after a 6-1 victory started the day at flight three. At flight two, the Lady Demons got an early service break and made that hold for the remainder of the match winning 6-4. Flight one went unfinished with Northwestern State leading 6-5.
"It was one of the toughest losses," said Coach
Burzis Kanga. "We didn't play well in doubles today. I was pleased with Ank's performance and she played a spectacular match. T.K. stepped it up a notch and Salma played a good match at three, but overall today's loss was disheartening."
In singles, the Lady Demons got the jump in four of the six first sets. At flight six, Judit Castillo raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first set. Castillo followed with a strong second set to give the first singles point to the two-seed.
New Orleans responded for their first point of the day which came from Vullings. The freshman won her match in straight sets to get the Privateers on the board. Vullings coasted to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Rhea Verma.
The Lady Demons later grabbed a win at flight five for their third point of the match as Ela Iwaniuk won in straight sets.
The match was closed down in Northwestern State's favor at flight four. Patrycja Polanska rallied from an early deficit to take the first set 7-5 on her way to a straight set victory.
Trang Dao came back from down a set to force a third at flight one against Polina Mutel. At flight three,
Salma Abdelrahim was ahead 2-1 in the third set when the match concluded.
The Privateers ended their 2019 campaign with a 13-10 record.
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