MOUNT OLIVE, NC – North Carolina A&T women's tennis is 2-0 for the first time in modern history. And they are still shorthanded.
The Aggies defeated Mount Olive Sunday afternoon at the John Neal Walker Tennis Center 4-3 for their first two-match winning streak since the Aggies defeated Florida A&M on April 8, 2017, and Norfolk State on April 20, 2017.
The Aggies beat North Carolina Wesleyan on Wednesday with four players and took down the Trojans on Sunday with five. But the one player they got back into the lineup was essential. Nour Gueblaoui returned from concussion protocol on Saturday and defeated Laura Servien on Sunday, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker), to clinch the win for A&T at No. 5 singles.
"Both of us were fighting," said Gueblaoui. "It was close, and the points were so long. But I still made it, stayed tough mentally, and won the match. I'm so happy about the win and so proud of the effort I made today."
Gueblaoui played with guts throughout. She trailed 5-2 in the first set before rallying to win. Then, after losing a challenging second set, she trailed in the third again. Servien took a 4-0 lead before Gueblaoui battled back to make it 5-3. Finally, down 5-4 and 40-30 in the game, Gueblaoui hit an incredible drop shot to save match point before going on to win her first collegiate match.
The afternoon did not start well for A&T after losing the doubles point. The Aggies were already at a disadvantage because they had to forfeit No. 3 doubles because they only had five players. Mount Olive's Liza Voloshyna and Nele Weber defeated Cielo Tapia-Cruz and Nuria Sanz at No. 1 doubles, 6-3, to clinch the point.
Ingrid Montserrat and Oriana Izarra made it a sweep of doubles for the Trojans when they defeated Lana Caculovic and Asima Sazan 6-4. The Aggies came into singles play down 2-0, knowing they had to forfeit their No. 6 singles match. But then the Aggies went to work by putting together two three-set wins in singles play, including Gueblaoui's victory.
Caculovic had the other three-set wins when she defeated Montserrat 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5 at No. 1 singles. Caculovic said there were no easy points in the match. "It was a lot of pressure during the match, and in the moment, I needed to be mentally strong," Caculovic said. "In the end of everything, I think was. I did everything I was supposed to do."
Tapia-Cruz followed with a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) win at No. 2 singles over Voloshyna to tie the match at 2. Then, Nuria Sanz gave A&T the lead by coming through with a 6-4, 6-3 No. 3 singles win.
I lost doubles and could not achieve that point, so I thought I needed to try to play well to achieve my point in singles because each point would be so important for the team," said Sanz. "During the game, I felt confident with my shots and with my brain."
Nele Weber tied the match for Mount Olive by beating Asima Sazan 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 singles, setting up Gueblaoui's clincher. The Aggies will get a few days off from competition before trying to continue their winning ways with a road match against Elon at 3 p.m., Tuesday, February 28.
