• Roster
• ▪
• Schedule / Results
• ▪
• News
• ▪
• Archives

April 1, 2007

Final Stats

Waterloo, Iowa -  The University of Northern Iowa women's tennis team wouldn't give up today and won 4-3 in a hard fought match over visiting Missouri Valley Conference foe Drake (6-10).

            UNI had opportunities to win the doubles point, however Drake proved to be too tough for the Panthers winning two of the three doubles matches. UNI's duo of Mariana Muraca (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Taynara Moraes (Santos, Brazil) were the lone Panther duo to pick up a doubles win, topping Kari Sloboth and Sarah Plowman 8-5 in the No. 3 spot.

            In singles play Meghana Paritala (Secunderabad, India) won in the No. 1 spot over Veronika Leszayova 7-5, 6-1. After dropping the No. 2 and 3 singles matches, UNI needed to win the final three matches to clinch the victory.

            Moraes came out and topped Sloboth in the No. 4 spot 7-5, 6-2. In a hard fought match in the No. 6 spot Muraca scratched out a win over Allison Wilkie 6-4, 7-6, (7-3). The deciding match of the afternoon came down to the No. 5 singles spot where Carolina Hannes (Sao Paulo, Brazil) came back from being down 4-2 in the third set to win not only the set; but eventually the match for the Panthers topping Plowman in four sets 5-7, 7-6, (7-3), 6-4.

            "We knew coming into today's match it was going to be really close," UNI head coach Sachin Kirtane said. "I felt like we gave up the doubles point, but we fought back hard. This is a great way to start the Valley and hats off to Carolina to get that win for us."

            UNI (12-3) will return to action again Saturday, April 7 at home against Creighton. The match is set to begin at 12:00 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa: 4                     Drake: 3

Doubles:

Veronika Leszayova/Allison Wilkie (DU) def. Meghana Paritala/Agnese Pukse (UNI) 9-7

Eve Rusdianto/Irina Kalashnikova (DU) def. Sampada Kanade/Carolina Hannes (UNI) 8-4

Mariana Muraca/Taynara Moraes (UNI) def. Kari Slobth/Sarah Plowman (DU) 8-5

Singles:

Meghana Paritala (UNI) def. Veronika Leszayova (DU) 7-5, 6-1

Eve Rusdianto (DU) def. Agnese Pukse (UNI) 6-1, 6-0

Irina Kalashnikova (DU) def. Sampada Kanade (UNI) 7-6, (7-4), 2-6, 6-1

Taynara Moraes (UNI) def. Kari Sloboth (DU) 7-5, 6-2

Carolina Hannes (UNI) def. Sarah Plowman (DU) 5-7, 7-6, (7-3), 6-4

Mariana Muraca (UNI) def. Allison Wilkie (DU) 6-4, 7-6, (7-3)