Marta Lesniak hits a backhand during one of her matches. (Photo courtesy of SMU Athletics )
The No. 29 SMU women’s tennis team continued to pile up victories by downing No. 23 Virginia Commonwealth University before turning right around and sweeping Conference USA rival Southern Mississippi University this past weekend.
The match against VCU was scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 20 at Turpin Tennis Center.
However, due to weather, the match was moved indoors to the Bent Tree Country Club.
The Mustangs started off slow, losing the doubles point to the Rams when No. 2 and No. 3 doubles fell. However, No. 1 doubles, consisting of sophomores Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova, were able to tally a victory and help the Mustangs avoid a doubles sweep.
However, SMU came to life in singles and nearly swept the board; the only loss was in the No. 3 singles, when Malyarchikova lost to VCU’s Kateryna Yergina. This is only the second loss Malyarchikova has suffered this season. Lesniak, now ranked No. 29 in the nation, claimed victory in straight sets over No. 47 Josefin Hjertquist.
“We came out a little flat in doubles, which I wasn’t pleased with,” head coach Lauren Longbotham-Meisner said in an interview with smumustangs.com. “But, we regrouped during the break and came out with a dominating performance in singles.”
The freshmen on the team continued to impress, as Katerina Vankova, Edyta Cieplucha and Shahzoda Hatamova all picked up wins in straight sets over the Rams. Senior Pavi Francis, playing at No. 6 singles, did not complete her match.
Less then 12 hours later, the Mustangs were back on the court against a streaking Golden Eagles team. Southern Miss was on a three-match winning streak in which they did not drop a single match.
That changed quickly as SMU claimed four straight victories in singles No. 1 – No. 4. Singles No. 5 and No. 6, played by Cieplucha and Francis respectively, did not finish their matches. Malyarchikova rebounded easily from her loss the previous day, defeating her opponent in two sets, 6-0, 6-2.
Lesniak won again at the No. 1 singles position, 6-4, 6-2. With her two victories over the weekend, Lesniak is now 17-0 on the season in singles.
