INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The Bellarmine women's tennis team added a match to its schedule at IUPUI this week but came up short Friday afternoon against the Jaguars by a final score of 5-2.

The Knights started out strong, taking two of the the three doubles matches and winning the doubles point for the first time in the Division I era.  Freshman Ekaterina Tikhono and junior Channing Varnum teamed up for a no. 2 doubles victory by a final score of 6-4 over Meghan Bernard and Samantha Hayward.  In no. 3 doubles, senior Ashley Jonathan and junior Maja Kozerski were victorious 6-3 against Christina Stankovic and Diya Matta.

Singles started encouraging as well with Tikhono taking her second straight win, defeating Gabrielle Ochalik 6-0, 6-2 in the no. 1 slot.  Bellarmine was unable to pull in another win, however, and dropped its second match of the season.  Freshman Rose Pastoret also fought valiantly, losing to Krystal Grubb to three sets (2-6, 6-1, 4-6).

Knights Head Coach Brian Slack believes playing this match against an experienced IUPUI group will ultimately help them this season.

"The match today was a good match for us," Slack said.  "They have a lot of seniors and graduate players on their roster, and that showed up today.  Hats off to Coach Susha.  We are going to be better because of this match.  We were put into situations that will help us down the road, and we got a big doubles point.  To see our doubles improving is big!  Ekaterina played a great match and is showing what it takes to win at the top spot.  Overall, we had solid performances by all the girls throughout the lineup and we just need to play better in the big points.  Tomorrow is another day, and we are looking forward to playing Marshall!"

Tikhonko, with her 2-0 singles record to start the season (six total victories including the fall) leads the Knights against Marshall on Saturday morning.  That match begins at 10:00 a.m. at the Eddie Weber Tennis Complex.

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