BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Omaha women's tennis team officially opened its season with a rousing 4-3 win over Eastern Illinois on Friday at the Bloomington Tennis Center.
"What a great way to get back into competition," said head coach
Adam Summitt. "The best thing for our team is to just compete and get experience. It's so hard to replicate in practice what we just felt today.
"This makes everyone better just going through it. We look forward to another day tomorrow against Illinois State."
The Mavericks got off to a good start, earning the doubles point by winning the matches at the No. 2 and 3 positions.
Natalie Lorentz and
Marie Kapelevich won at No. 2 against Brittany Steven and Elizaveta Bukraba-Ulanova, 7-6, prevailing in the tiebreaker, 7-4.
At No. 3, the team of
Colby Kelley and
Brooke Covington won easily over Lauren Ellis and Claire Perez-Korinko, 6-1.
In the singles matches, the Mavericks fell behind early as the Panthers won the first two points, prevailing at No. 3 and No. 1. But
Ines Absisan beat EIU's Christine Gouws in a marathon at No. 2, winning 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2). Then Kelly bested Ellis at No. 5, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 to put the Mavericks back in the lead.
Eastern Illinois tied the match with a win at No. 4, but
Lillian Tiemeyer secured the win with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Perez-Korinko at No. 6.
The Mavericks will finish the weekend on Saturday when they face Illinois State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Bloomington.
