Southern Illinois University
Wichita St
Saluki Women's Tennis Defeats Wichita State
04/30/2001 | 12:00:00 | Women's Tennis
April 7, 2001
The Southern Illinois University Carbondale women's tennis team upped its Missouri Valley Conference record to a perfect 2-0 after beating Wichita State, 5-2. Saturday at the University Courts east of the SIUC Arena on a day when wind gusts approached 40 miles per hour.
"It was a nice win especially with the wind blowing so hard," said SIUC coach Judy Auld. "My team fought really hard and realized they could use the wind to their advantage. It was a good mental thing to see as a coach. It was great to see Erika (Ochoa) hang tough and win her match and to see the three freshmen do so well in both singles and doubles."
The Salukis (6-5 in dual matches overall) will continue its conference schedule with a dual match against Southwest Missouri State Sunday starting at 11 a.m. weather permitting. If the match is forced to move indoors it will be played at the Sports Center south of the University Mall starting at noon.
"It is very encouraging to see how we played today," Auld said. ?Even though Southwest is coming in with only five players we don't need to think we already have the match won. If it is windy again tomorrow then we will just have to come out and use the wind to our advantage."
The toughest match of the day was at No. 1 singles where Erika Ochoa needed a tie-breaker to dispatch Amanda Cervantes, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2). Also winning in singles for the Salukis were freshman Alejandra Blanco at No. 2, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, over Annellie van den Heever, Murphysboro freshman Tana Trapani at No. 4, 6-1, 6-1, over Martina Stojkic and freshman Sarah Krismanits at No. 5, 6-2, 6-4, over Sharon Colledge.
"It was kind of hard especially in the third set because I couldn't find my (serve) toss since the wind was blowing so much," Ochoa said. "I was playing kind of tight, but when it came down to the tie-breaker all the people started to cheer and that inspired me to win."
The Salukis won two of the three doubles matches with Trapani and Blanco upping their record to 8-1 with a win at No. 2, 8-6, against Kelli Clark and Stojkic and the team of Krismanits and Keri Crandall winning at No. 3, 8-1, against Sarah Beth Dangos and Cherise Stein.
The No. 1 doubles team of Ochoa and Serrot lost 8-4 to Cervantes and van den Heever while Serrot lost at No. 3 singles to Clark 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and Rachel Moroles lost at No. 6 singles to Dangos, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.
