The women’s tennis team beat Clemson 6-1 last Wednesday in a long indoor battle in which Tech won every singles match and only dropped the doubles point.
No. 24 Clemson includes the No. 1 singles player in the nation, Ani Mijacika. The team won the first doubles match, but dropped the next two, both of which ended in tiebreakers. Senior Whitney McCray and freshman Sasha Krupina finished their doubles match first over Federica vanAdrichem and Estefania Balda 8-5. The teams of junior Christy Striplin with freshman Noelle Hickey and senior Kristi Miller with sophomore Kristin Flower lost both their doubles matches that were close to the end. Miller and Flower’s match came down to the last few points in the tiebreaker which they ended up dropping, 8-7 (7-5).
When singles play began, Tech was still struggling to take the lead. Slow starts from Miller, sophomore Amanda McDowell and McCray led to early deficits. McDowell dropped her first two games, but after starting some rallies, she did not lose anymore and became the first singles to finish. She won 6-2, 6-0 against Balda. McCray lost her first set 0-6 and was down 0-2 in the second before turning her match around over van Adrichem and winning it in a third set 0-6, 6-2, 6-3. Flower took her match over Ina Hadziselimovic after winning her second set in tiebreak 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) to bring Tech’s team score to 3-1. Striplin sealed Tech’s victory of 4-1 after beating Alexandra Luc 6-2, 6-0. Miller’s match, arguably the most exciting of the night, was close the entire time with the No. 1 Mijacika close in matches, games and individual points. Miller won the first set 6-2, but lost the second in a close tiebreak 6-7 (7-9). In the third set Miller came from behind to bring the set to another tiebreak and eventually win the match and point for Tech.
On Saturday afternoon, Tech was able to win again at Notre Dame, 5-2. Tech started off the day by losing doubles. Flower and Krupina were the first to step off the court, losing to Cosmina Ciobanu and Colleen Rielley 8-4. Miller and McCray lost their match to Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft 8-2 to give the Irish the doubles win.
Hickey won her singles over Krisik and gave Tech it’s first point for the day, evening up the score 1-1. Flower was the next to win over Ciobanu with a 6-4, 6-2 victory. McDowell beat Buck 6-1, 6-3 and brought Tech’s score to a 3-1 lead over the Irish. At the No. 6 position, Johansson sealed Tech’s win over Notre Dame with her individual win over Rafael 6-3, 6-4.