University of Houston
North Texas
Cougars Drop Last Tennis Road Match Of 2008
4/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
April 5, 2008
TULSA, Okla. - For the University of Houston women's tennis team, it was just a matter of a point here and a point there in its Saturday afternoon match against North Texas in Tulsa. Unfortunately, the points went the other way, as the Cougars dropped a close 4-3 decision to the Eagles in concluding the regular-season portion of its 2008 road slate.
With the tough loss, the Cougars drop to 12-10 on the year, heading home to wrap up the regular season with three matches on April 12. UH will play host to Tarleton State, Prairie View A&M and Southern at the John E. Hoff Courts.
"We didn't lose to North Texas," UH head coach John Severance said. "We lost to pressure. We dropped leads left and right, and it is quite disappointing and disconcerting that we would be succumbing to pressure and losing matches like these in April.
"Only thing I can hope for is that we will learn from this. We have to get it together and get ready for the most important part of our schedule, which comes in two weeks (the Conference USA Tournament.)"
The Cougars misfortunes began during doubles play. After the #1 duo of Lucy Forward and Leila Salek dispatched of Madura Ranganathan and Ashley Alkin, 8-5, and the #3 tandem of Lynley Wasson and Jordan McCombs dropped an 8-5 decision to Amy Joubert and Idalina Franca, a point here and there determined the doubles point. At #2 Vicky Simpson and Neila Starratt were on the verge of capturing their match, and thus the point, but Lady Luck was not on their side. The pair eventually lost a hard-fought 9-8 (7-2) match to the North Texas tandem of Rachel Wilhelm and Narine Kazarova.
Houston evened the score in singles play by taking three matches in the #1-5 seeds. After a tough first set, Salek blasted past Catalina Cruz at #2, 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, Starratt took out Kazarova, 6-3, 6-2, at #3 and Simpson won at #5, 6-3, 6-2, over Joubert. Forward dropped a 6-1, 7-5 decision at #1 to Ranganathan, and Wasson - who played at North Texas in 2005-06 - lost a 6-2, 6-4, match at #4 to Franca.
The match came down to #6 singles, where Joanna Kacprzyk was in a dogfight with Wilhelm with the victory on the line. In a battle that needed tiebreakers in both sets, Kacprzyk fell 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6) to cede the win to the Eagles.
Players Mentioned
