University of North Florida
UCF
Lady Ospreys improve to 7-0
2/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 20, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida women's tennis team continued with its blazing start to the 2007 season on Tuesday afternoon, blowing past in-state foe UCF 6-1 at the UNF Tennis Complex.
The Lady Ospreys improved to 7-0, their best start since 1998 when the team opened 8-0.
UNF took two of the three doubles matches and got singles wins from Vanessa Sanchez (No. 1), Catalina Castillo (No. 2), Florencia Torres (No. 3), Natalia Sanchez (No. 4) and Ina Durcakova (No. 5) to finish off the Golden Knights, who dropped to 0-4.
"We came out a little bit soft in doubles, but we were able to pull through," UNF assistant coach Rodrigo Puebla said. "Getting that point in doubles raised our confidence, and we came out strong in singles after that. We are still working on a couple of things that we believe are going to make a difference in making us a ranked team."
In doubles play, UNF's Castillo and Natalia Sanchez suffered their first loss in five matches at the No. 1 position, falling 8-5 to UCF's Elvira Serrot and Anna Yakimchenkova. Torres and Durcakova won 8-5 at No. 2 doubles, however, and Vanessa Sanchez and Danielle Desmarais won 8-6 at No. 3 doubles to give the Lady Ospreys the point and a 1-0 lead.
In singles play, Vanessa Sanchez breezed to a win at No. 1 singles (6-2, 6-2), while Durcakova did the same at the No. 5 spot (6-1, 6-1). Torres followed suit with a straight-set win at the No. 3 position (6-2, 6-3), her sixth straight victory since a season-opening loss against Georgia Southern.
The hardest-fought match of the afternoon came between UNF's Natalia Sanchez and UCF's Kyla McNicol at No. 4 singles, with the pair playing two marathon sets that ended in tie-breaks - and Sanchez prevailing in both, 7-6 (13), 7-6 (5).
Durcakova and Torres are both 6-1 this season in singles and have teamed to post a 5-0 mark in doubles play.
UNF returns to action on Friday when it plays host to A-Sun foe Mercer at the UNF Tennis Complex. Match time is set for 2 p.m.
