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| PC: Codi Bressler |
Although it was ruled as a scrimmage, the SCF tennis team dropped their matchup against NAIA Southeastern losing by a score of 5-4.
The matchup began with doubles as the freshman duo of Karla Menendez and Martina Shakhnazarova defeated the duo of sophomore Beatrice Letizia and freshman Nadezda Bijelic by a score of 8-3 at #2 doubles.
Following them, freshman Allie Beck and redshirt freshman Mackenzie Vraspir fell to the sophomore duo of Mia Dunagan and Priscila Baptista at #3 doubles by a score of 8-4.
For the final doubles match, the sophomore duo of Sara Ramirez-Goncalves and Britain Botsford defeated the duo of junior Angelique Myrtil and senior Sharienne Ricardo by a score of 8-6 at #1 doubles. The Manatees were ahead 2-1.
"My performance in doubles wasn't the best," said Ramirez-Goncalves. "I was very nervous and very tight. I didn't play how I normally played, so I just try to erase that from my memory. At the end, me and Brie (Botsford) won and Brie was a really good support even though we didn't play our best. She still kept me down to earth to what we needed to do."
"We worked a lot on doubles this week and definitely showed improvement in that," said head coach Chloe Murphy. "I'm so proud of them for showing it and making adjustments"
After 15 minutes of warming up and getting hydrated, singles play went underway.
In a exhibition match, redshirt freshman Alexis Booker fell to freshman Kishaundah Romain 8-5 in one single set.
Shakhnazarova would be the first to fall as she fell to Letizia at #2 singles in a 6-0 pair decision to tie the score at 2-2. Letizia was named as a member of the NAIA All-American Second Team last season
Botford would be the next person to fall as she fell in 6-1 pair decision to Bijelic at #3 singles to give the Lady Flames a 3-2 lead. At #5 singles, Vraspir would fall Baptista in a 6-2 pair decision.
With the score 4-2 in favor of Southeastern, Menendez would not let Myrtil get in her way as she cut the Lady Flames lead to one at #4 singles as native of Cordoba, Mexico defeated Myrtil 7-6, 6-0 leaving it down to Beck and Ramirez-Goncalves.
Beck continued to try and fight at #6 singles, but ultimately would fall to 6-4, 6-3 giving Southeastern the win. Despite the loss, Ramirez-Goncalves went on to continue playing as she defeated the reigning NAIA All-American Honorable Mention in Ricardo by a score of 7-6 (3), 6-2 at #1 singles.
"It wasn't the result we wanted," said Murphy on singles. "But it was a lot of things we can take back to the practice court and work on with three more chances to get better next week."
"Because it was only me in singles, I know if I make a mistake, it's on me," said Ramirez-Goncalves on her singles match. "I know that there is no one else that depends on me on my performance. I was a lot more relaxed and fought much more in doubles. It was really nice and I'm glad how I played in singles."
Opinion*: The crowd, which was majorly the SCF basketball team as well as members of the baseball, softball and volleyball team, all came to support the tennis team for their opening matchup, despite it being a scrimmage and I have to say it was pretty lively to say the least.
"It was phenomenal," said Murphy on the support. "The girls always like to play when there's people around and it's more fun to play when you got people to support you and we appreciate the support from all the teams that came to see us. It meant a lot for the girls to see their fellow athletes play."
"It was a really good thing to have such a big crowd today with their support," said Ramirez-Goncalves on the support. "They were wonderful and it was the first time that that amount of people showed up."
Up Next:
The Manatees will have another home scrimmage as they welcome NCAA DII Rollins College Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm. Following that, the Manatees will have their official opening match of the season as they travel to Tampa to take on the University of Tampa. The Spartans finished last season 12-8 overall with a 4-6 record in the Sunshine State Conference.
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