NEW ORLEANS –
Ank Vullings continued her winning ways in singles but the New Orleans Privateers fell just short in a tightly contested 5-2 loss to the Tulane Green Wave on Thursday afternoon at City Park.
HIGHLIGHTS
Vullings, who went 10-0 in a shortened spring 2020 campaign, came back with a vengeance. Vullings got ahead early with two breaks in the first set and never looked back in a 6-2, 6-3 win.
Lina Hohnhold also made her singles debut with a win. After breezing through the first set, Hohnhold was locked in a fierce battle with Adelaide Lavery. Hohnhold eventually got the victory at 9-7 after a forehand from her opponent went into the net.
Though Tulane took the doubles point, they were pushed to the wire.
Mar Gendra and
Salma Abdelrahim earned a late service break and held the next game to win 6-3 at flight three. That forced a deciding match at flight two, which Tulane won 6-4.
THE DECIDING POINT
Tulane won the match clinching point at flight three. After going down a set, Lahari Yelamanchili built up a 5-1 lead. Gendra engineered a fierce comeback to pull the score to 5-4, but Yelamanchili took the next game to seal the match for the Green Wave.
FROM COACH KANGA
"It's a woulda coulda shoulda type situation. I think we played a good match and we'll grow from this. We will be a stronger and better team going forward. And we learned from playing a good Tulane team."
"Kudos to Ank who made a statement today. And I was proud of how Lina came back in the second set tiebreak. Today showed me that we can compete with some of the best. This team showed me a lot of resilience."
NEXT UP
The Privateers are next scheduled to travel to Grambling on Feb. 8. The match is scheduled for 2 p.m. Stay tuned for updates and any schedule changes throughout the season.
