The San Diego State women’s tennis team cold start to the spring season continued Tuesday, Feb. 16, as it fell to University of Hawaii 4-2.
The Aztecs started out with a great comeback victory to secure the doubles point as senior Isabelle Hoorn and junior Taylor Lederman lost their doubles set 6-1.
But the tandems of senior Tami Nguyen and sophomore Jana Buth, and sophomore Paola Diaz de Regules and junior Kennedy Davis battled their way to victories, winning their sets 6-4, 7-6, respectively.
At the beginning of the singles matches, it looked as though it was going to be a similar story.
Buth was defeated by freshman Marina Hruba, No. 99 in the county, in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. Hoorn had a tough battle with senior Paulina Petriskova with both players showing off their skills throughout the match, but Petriskova ended up overpowering the senior as Hoorn fell 6-3, 6-3.
In the battle of No. 1 singles, Nguyen squared off against junior Cindy Nguyen and played the tightest match of the day. Tami Nguyen would lose the battle, though, after a tremendous 7-6, 7-5 bout.
However, the Aztecs would fight their way back into the match.
Diaz de Regules split the first two sets with her opponent, losing the second 6-1. She rallied back, though, forcing a tiebreaker in the third set and ended up winning it 7-2.
“To be honest this was an important match for me,” Diaz de Regules said. “It feels good to bring the confidence back and get back to my game.”
“I thought that Paola had a good fight today,” head coach Peter Matera said. “She was down substantially in the third set and that was a really good comeback. She stayed true to and believed in herself.”
With the score now at 3-2 it was down to junior Taylor Lederman to extend the Aztecs’ chances.
She would also split the first two sets, and in the third she would drop her serve once. Yet, that proved to be enough as freshman Roxanne Resma took down the University of Kentucky transfer 6-4 in the deciding set.
“We have a lot of talent on this team,” Matera said. “We have a lot of great matches still to come and a lot of them are at home, so no time for head hanging.”
The Aztecs have lost four in a row and fall to 2-6 on the season, but have a favorable schedule down the stretch with 10 of their last 15 matches at home.
Their first shot to get back on track will be at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18 as they host UC Irvine.
