University of Houston
No. 62 Nevada
Tennis Falls at No. 62 Nevada
4/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
April 13, 2007
RENO, Nev. - The University of Houston tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision at No. 62 Nevada Friday at the Wilbur D. May Tennis Complex.
"This was a much closer match than the score indicated," head coach John Severance said. "I was pleased with the way that we fought on every court. Despite the loss, we left the court as a better tennis team."
The Cougars (13-7) dropped the doubles point as the No. 3 pair of Fiorella Velez and Alice Hall defeated Vicky Simpson and Neila Starratt, 8-3. Nevada (12-8) grabbed a 1-0 advantage and clinched the doubles point when Ly-Houng Ding and Bach-Lah Pham knocked off Anna Djananava and Sonja Nikolic 8-4 at the No. 2 position.
At the No. 1 spot, Loli Gomez and Leila Salek lost a hard-fought 8-6 decision to the No. 48 nationally ranked pair of Carolina Bailly and Maria Mizyuk.
The Wolf Pack charged ahead 3-0 as Velez claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win over Djananova in the No. 5 hole, while Pham slid past Starratt by the count of 6-3, 6-3 at the bottom of the lineup.
Dinh secured the victory for Nevada with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Nikolic at the No. 3 spot before Hall set down Simpson 6-4, 6-2 in the No. 4 hole.
Houston got a pair of solid performances from Salek and Gomez at the top of the lineup. Salek lost 7-5, 6-2 to Bailly at No. 1, while Gomez battled to a 6-4, 7-6 (0) loss at the No. 2 slot.
"We played strong opening sets across the board," Severance said. "We had a couple of balls sail on us because of the altitude. There's a big difference between playing at sea level and playing 5,000 feet above the ground. We have to continue to take steps in the right direction."
Houston closes out the regular season Saturday at Noon against Middle Tennessee State. The match will be played at the Wilbur D. May Tennis Complex in Reno.
"Middle Tennessee State is a talented team, and we're going to have our hands full," Severance said. "These types of matches in these types of conditions are a good prep for our team to get us prepared for the conference tournament next weekend."
