Liberty University
Radford
Lady Flames Tennis Closes Out Conference Play With 5-2 Win at Radford
4/10/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Liberty women's tennis wrapped up its conference portion of its spring 2018 schedule with a 5-2 win at Radford, Tuesday at the Radford University Tennis Courts.
"Everyone on the team won a match today and contributed to the win," said Lady Flames head coach Jeff Maren. "Despite a few setbacks, we got the job done and look forward to competing hard again on Thursday."
Liberty (15-8), which is now on a five-match winning streak, finishes the Big South regular-season slate in second place with a 7-1 mark, behind only Winthrop (8-0). The Lady Flames were picked to finish second in the league in the preseason poll. Over the past three years, Liberty has posted a combined 22-3 record in Big South regular season matches.
Radford, which has now lost nine straight to Liberty, is now 9-11 overall and closes league play at 3-5.
With one match still to be contested in the Big South on Saturday, details and seeds for the 2018 Big South Women's Tennis Championship will be released on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
Liberty swept the doubles session on Tuesday and took four of six singles matches for the victory.
In those doubles bouts, junior Rebekah Anderson and freshman Grace Hashiguchi won their seventh straight doubles bout, a 6-0 win against the Highlanders' Jeanie Acierto and Zoe Fraser in the No. 3 match.
The Lady Flames' Evangeline Crist and Ashley Bongart won a tight match with Radford's top duo of Natalie Sayer and Tyler Blalock on court one, 6-4. Their victory made it 1-0, Lady Flames, in the match.
Maria Medina and Lara Soares allowed Liberty to take all three doubles bouts with their 6-4 win over the Big South's strongest No. 2 doubles unit, Lotti Meszaros and Drousile Dzebou (14-3 entering Tuesday).
Medina and Soares are on their own five-match winning streak as a pairing and are 14-5 in spring doubles.
Blalock picked up Radford's first point of the day, coming on court four, as Liberty's Anderson was forced to retire late in the first set.
Liberty quickly regained the lead, getting a straight-sets (6-0, 6-2) win from freshman Polina Miroshnichenko over her counterpart, Zoe Fraser, in the No. 5 singles match. The Liberty rookie, who is 11-5 in singles this spring, posted a 4-2 mark in Big South singles matches.
Leading 2-1, Soares added to the Lady Flames' advantage, making it 3-1, with her two-set besting of Meszaros (6-3, 6-0) on court three. Soares, a junior, is now 16-3 in singles dual match and finished 8-0 in the Big South in her first year as a Lady Flame.
Radford kept the match alive, as its top player, Dzeubou, battled past Bongart of Liberty in three sets, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. The Highlanders trailed, 3-2, at that point. Despite the setback, Bongart still finished 6-2 in her Big South regular-season singles matches, this spring.
The Lady Flames' Crist, coming off a week in which she set the program records for both singles and doubles wins, delivered the necessary fourth point by winning in straight sets (6-2, 6-1) versus Acierto on court six. The Liberty senior is now 17-5 in spring singles, including a perfect 8-0 Big South mark, and has won 12 straight singles matches overall. Tuesday's victory, which put Liberty ahead 4-2, was her 89th in singles in a Liberty uniform.
The Lady Flames' Medina bolstered the Liberty total to five points with her 6-3, 6-2 triumph against Sayer in the No. 2 singles match. The native of Venezuela finished 6-2 in Big South singles competition.
On Thursday, Liberty heads to Marshall for a match against the Herd (3-17) who they have never beaten. Thursday's match will begin at noon at Marshall's Brian David Fox Tennis Center in Huntington, W. Va.
Liberty 5, Radford 2
Singles competition
1. DZEUBOU, Drousile (RAD) def. BONGART, Ashley (LIBERTYW) 6-2, 0-6, 6-4
2. MEDINA, Maria (LIBERTYW) def. SAYER, Natalie (RAD) 6-3, 6-2
3. SOARES, Lara (LIBERTYW) def. MESZAROS, Lotti (RAD) 6-3, 6-0
4. BLALOCK, Tyler (RAD) def. ANDERSON, Rebekah (LIBERTYW) 6-5, retired
5. MIROSHNICHENKO, P. (LIBERTYW) def. FRASER, Zoe (RAD) 6-0, 6-2
6. CRIST, Evangeline (LIBERTYW) def. ACIERTO, Jeanie (RAD) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. CRIST, Evangeline/BONGART, Ashley (LIBERTYW) def. SAYER, Natalie/BLALOCK, Tyler (RAD) 6-4
2. MEDINA, Maria/SOARES, Lara (LIBERTYW) def. MESZAROS, Lotti/DZEUBOU, Drousile (RAD) 6-4
3. ANDERSON, Rebekah/HASHIGUCHI, Grace (LIBERTYW) def. ACIERTO, Jeanie/FRASER, Zoe (RAD) 6-0
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (4,5,3,2,6,1) T-2:23 A-15
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,1,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,5,3,2,6,1