Miami University
Xavier
Tennis Opens with Sweep of Xavier
1/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 22, 2011
HAMILTON, Ohio -- Miami opened the 2011 portion of its tennis schedule Saturday afternoon with a 7-0 victory over local rival Xavier. The RedHawks won two of three doubles matches and all six singles contests.
The win was the first in the career of Miami Head Coach Anca Dumitrescu, who was took over the RedHawk program after two assistant coaching stops.
Miami grabbed the doubles point despite dropping the first match. Xavier opened play with an 8-1 victory at the No. 2 position as sister Christie and Katie Pleiman won the first six games enroute to the win over Riekie Honiball and Cara Wald. Miami rebounded at No. 1 with Stephanie Danesis and Megan Martzolf breaking a 2-2 tie with six straight game wins for an 8-2 triumph.
The opening point came down to No. 3 doubles with Miami's Anastasia Dracheva and Nimisha Mohan meeting freshmen Allyson Westling and Andrea Wolf of Xavier. After the teams held serve through five games for a 3-2 RedHawk lead, Miami broke enroute to a 5-2 lead. Wolf and Westling closed to within 6-4 but the RedHawk pair won their next serves for an 8-5 victory. In the final game on Dracheva's serve, there were six deuces, with Xavier saving four match points.
The momentum carried into singles as Dracheva and Mohan posted easy wins. Dracheva started off with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Tifanie Treece, while Mohan earned a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Westling. Miami clinched the match when Martzolf won her 24th straight singles victory, 6-4, 6-1 over Wolf.
Danesis rallied from a 4-3 deficit in her first set and a 5-5 tie in her second to claim a 6-4, 7-5 win over Katie Pleiman, after Wald had added another point by winning 6-2, 6-4 over Christie Pleiman.
The final match went to a tiebreaker with Honiball coming back for a hard-fought 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (11-9) victory.
"I was happy to see the girls compete today," Dumitrescu said. "We were able to tough-out a close match at No. 3 doubles and came out strong in singles. We look forward to improving with every match."
The match marked 12th in the last 14 dual matches for Miami, which is the two-time defending Mid-American Conference champion.
The teams also played three exhibition matches with Miami winning each of them. Katie Thome and Jessica Parr teamed for an 8-0 double victory over Natalie Handler and Mary Maffey. Thome posted a 6-1, 6-3 decision over Handler, while Maffey had to retire after a 6-1 first-set loss to Parr.
The RedHawks return to action tomorrow at 5 p.m., when they face another local rival, Dayton, at the Riverside Racquet Club in Hamilton.
Players Mentioned
