LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine women's tennis team played a doubleheader on Saturday at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center, and the Knights captured their first Division I victory in program history.
Bellarmine faced Northern Illinois in its first dual of the day and took down the Huskies 4-3. Saturday's win also marks BU's first victory this season.
"I'm proud of the ladies in that first match," Knights Head Coach
Brian Slack said. "Getting that first D1 win for this group was big! We had really good energy and fought from first to last point! We had some different double combinations, and they found ways to win the doubles point."
The doubles point proved to be critical for Bellarmine in a tight battle. As Coach Slack touched on, Bellarmine changed up its teams, and the Knights responded. The no. 1 team of
Ekaterina Tikhonko and
Lailaa Bashir reeled in a 6-4 victory, while
Channing Varnum and
Vendula Kryslova gutted out a 7-5 win in the no. 3 slot.
With the advantage heading into singles, Tikhonko continued her unbeaten streak to start the spring season, defeating Anastasia Rakita 7-5, 6-3 in no. 1 singles. Tikhonko is now 3-0 in dual action. Bashir took care of business at no. 2 singles with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Erika Dimitriev. Hanley The sealing victory for Bellarmine came from
Hanley Riner who bested Reagan Welch 6-3, 6-3 at no. 4 singles.
In the evening match against host Louisville, the Knights fell by a final score of 4-1. For the second straight match, however, Bellarmine won the doubles point.
The no. 1 combo of Tikhonko and Bashir cruised to a 6-2 win. The no. 3 team also came through again as Kryslova and Varnum picked up a 7-5 victory. In singles action, Kryslova led her no. 3 singles match 6-3, 5-5, but it went unfinished.
"We came out against UofL with a lot of energy and played really good doubles," Slack added. "For Channing and Vendy to come back from 5-3 down and win the doubles point for us was big! We competed to the last point and had opportunities to push UofL to the brink. I'm proud of these ladies today!"
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