ELON, NC – North Carolina A&T women's tennis lost its first match of the season as the Elon Phoenix defeated the Aggies 5-0 Tuesday afternoon at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
Elon easily won the doubles point because the Aggies are still shorthanded, playing with five players instead of the six competitors it needs because of injury. The teams completed only one doubles match on Tuesday as the Cielo Tapia-Cruz and Nuria Sanz A&T duo lost to Sibel Tanik and Lizette Reding 6-0.
The A&T freshman duo of Lana Caculovic and Nour Gueblaoui played together for the first time on Tuesday. They led Julie Ball and Madison Cordisco 3-2 before the match was called because of the default loss at No. 3 and the Tapia-Cruz/Sanz loss at No. 1, the Phoenix had the doubles point clinched.
Elon took a 2-0 lead after A&T defaulted at No. 6. Miray Koner gave the Phoenix a comfortable 3-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Asima Sazan at No. 5 singles. Elon clinched the win as Olivia Archer defeated freshman Gueblaoui 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreaker), 6-3. Gueblaoui trailed 6-5 in the first set before winning the next game to force the tiebreaker.
The second set saw Gueblaoui lose the first four points before battling to cut Archer's lead to 5-3. She saved match point twice before missing what she called an easy shot as Archer claimed victory.
"I ended the match on a bad shot, but If I think about the whole match, it was a good fight," said Gueblaoui. "I don't regret anything about either match. I gave it everything I had on the court. I fought for every ball. I'm proud of myself because I'm seeing the growth on the court, and I'm proud of us as a team for always fighting and giving everything we have. I know we will keep working and getting better, and good things are coming our way."
The final completed singles match of the day occurred at No. 2. Tapia Cruz trailed Helen Sarikulaya 5-2 in the first set before Tapia-Cruz rallied to tie the game at 5. Tapia-Cruz then trailed 6-5 and faced match point at 40-all in the game. Tapia-Cruz lost the point, the set and eventually the match, 7-5, 6-3.
"Overall, I think it was a good match for all the ladies because every match was close, so I think it's a good start to know that we are going in the right direction," said Tapia-Cruz.
The No. 1 and No. 3 singles matches went unfinished. Caculovic won her first set over Reding 6-4 before losing set No. 2, 6-3. Sanz and Ball were in the throws of a thrilling match before it was called. Ball won set No. 1, 6-4, before Sanz took the second set, 6-4. Ball led 3-1 when the match ended in the third.
The Aggies are back in action on Wednesday when they travel to the Queens University of Charlotte Royals for a 3 p.m. matchup.
