GREENSBORO – After a few cancelations, the North Carolina A&T women's tennis team wanted to make sure it had a few tests ahead before battling for a Colonial Athletic Association championship next week in Williamsburg, Va.
The Aggies lost one of those tests on Wednesday with a 5-2 loss to UNC Greensboro at the UNCG tennis courts. As a result, the Aggies saw their two-match winning streak end as they dropped to 7-6 on the season. UNCG improved to 5-14 after the win.
The Spartans opened the afternoon by winning the doubles point, sweeping all three matchups against the Aggies. UNCG's Juliana Craft and Hanna Giddings won the first doubles match at No. 2 with a 6-0 win over Nuria Sanz and Cielo Tapia-Cruz. The loss ended a three-match winning streak for Sanz and Tapia-Cruz.
The A&T duo of Asima Sazan and Nour Gueblaoui then lost to Olivia Gallagher and Raegan Mitchell 6-1. Finally, Ariana Babkova and Alexandra Dodashev rounded out the doubles play for the day with a 6-4 win over Lana Caculovic and Isabela Romanichen.
UNCG took a 2-0 lead in a singles match that ended an incredible run for Sanz. Sanz lost for the first time this season with a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Craft. Sanz, a freshman out of Valencia, Spain, won her career's first 10 singles matches before losing on Wednesday.
"Today was hard," said Sanz. "Today was my first loss in singles, so that was hard. My opponent was too tough, and she was so consistent."
UNCG extended its lead at No. 4 singles as Romanichen lost Gallagher 7-5, 6-3. Romanichen dropped to 3-2 on the season, as the Aggies are 3-2 when they play with a full complement of six players. The Spartans clinched the win with a No. 6 singles victory from UNCG's Luna Urso over Sazan, 6-2, 6-2.
The Aggies got their first win of the day when Caculovic beat Babkova in three sets, 0-6, 6-2, 6-2. Caculovic is now 9-2 on the season as she won her third straight singles match. The Aggies also got on the board with a win at No. 2 singles as Tapia-Cruz defeated Giddings 6-2, 7-5.
"I just played solid and fought until the end," said Tapia-Cruz, who won her fourth straight singles match to improve to 8-3 on the season. "As a team, we lost, but it was a good battle."
The match concluded with a back-and-forth battle between Gueblaoui and Mitchell at No. 5 singles. The two ladies went three sets as Mitchell won the first 6-4. Gueblaoui bounced back with a 6-3 win in the second before Mitchell took the contest with a third-set 7-5 win.
A&T will get two more tests before heading to Virginia, April 20-23, to play for a conference title. The Aggies will go to Wake Forest on Sunday to face the Demon Deacons at 4 p.m. before traveling to Raleigh, NC, to meet Shaw at noon on Monday.
