The Fresno State women’s tennis team lost two in a row to the Cal Poly Mustangs and the Pacific Tigers over the weekend at the Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center.
Against the Mustangs, the Bulldogs struggled in doubles play on Friday. Cal Poly earned the doubles point by winning both matches at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions by scores of 7-5 and 6-3 respectively.
Fresno State ramped up its play in the singles matches, but only won two of the six singles points. Georgia Lawson, playing in the No. 2 singles slot, gave Fresno State its first point of the day with a 7-6, 6-5 victory over Emily Monaghan.
A.C. Hummel, playing in the No. 3 singles slot, gave Fresno State its last point of the match. She won decidedly with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Dominique Stone. The Mustangs won the other four singles matches to give them the win.
Hummel at No. 3 position wins set 1 in singles play!!ðŸ‘ðŸ¾#GoDogs | #PrideOfTheValley | #AtThePeak pic.twitter.com/wpPJlZCyQb
— Fresno State Women's Tennis (@FresnoStateWTEN) January 24, 2020
Bulldogs head coach Mariana Cobra said the team lacked energy at the start.
“I thought our energy was low in the beginning in doubles which led us to lose the doubles point,” Cobra said. “We picked it up towards the end, but unfortunately we can’t wait till the end to have good energy.”
Moving on to Saturday, the Bulldogs bounced back early and came out strong against Pacific in doubles play. The team of Lawson and Shir Azran won their match quickly 6-1, before Ella Hosrefovic and Alessia Dario took their own set, a convincing 6-2 win.
With a victory in doubles, the ‘Dogs were set to win if they continued to execute down the stretch. As singles play began to unfold, the score was tied 2-2.
Azran gave Fresno State its second point with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Dohee Lee. The deciding point came down to Dario at court 6 as the overall match score was tied 3-3.
Shir Azran at No. 2 killing it 4-1 in the first set!ðŸ¾ðŸ™Œ#GoDogs | #PrideOfTheValley | #AtThePeak pic.twitter.com/8kBiEYKVKT
— Fresno State Women's Tennis (@FresnoStateWTEN) January 25, 2020
Dario fought hard, but came up short and lost to Anna Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. After the match, Cobra said there were many positive takeaways, but there were many missed opportunities against the Tigers.
“In singles, we did a good job in some spots at taking our chances,” Cobra said. “However, we had a lot of other chances throughout the day where we didn’t capitalize, which ended up costing us the match.”
In four straight matches at home, the Bulldogs finish 1-3 after losing three in a row. They head to Provo, Utah next to play BYU on Feb. 8.