Match Results
NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State women's tennis team pulled off a massive upset in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play, downing 10-time defending conference champion South Carolina State by a 4-2 score on Sunday evening.
The Spartans handed the Bulldogs just their second loss to a conference opponent since 2007. S.C. State had been 43-1 in regular season MEAC matches during that time. The Bulldogs have won every conference championship title since 2005.
In a matchup originally scheduled to be played at the NSU Tennis Complex but moved indoors to ODU's Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center, the Spartans won four of the six singles matches. Due to the interest of time and the fact the match was already decided, the teams did not play doubles.
The victory improved NSU's record to 2-5 overall this year and 1-0 in conference play. The Spartans were picked to finish fifth in the MEAC Southern Division in this year's preseason poll.
They were victorious at the top three spots in the lineup over the Bulldogs (2-4, 0-1 MEAC). It started at the No. 1 spot, where freshman
Dajana Cvjetkovic, competing in just her second-ever contest with NSU, defeated Intissar Rassif by a 6-3, 6-2 score.
Sophomore
Liza Gordeeva downed Oleksandra Filippova via a 6-3, 6-4 margin at the second singles spot. Junior
Andrea Macchiavello made it a complete sweep with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Andjela Vasic at the No. 3 position.
The Spartans ultimately came away with the match win when senior
Mafalda Lhorca rallied to win at the sixth slot. She took the first set over Claudia Roca, 6-1, before Roca won the second, 6-3. Lhorca then made doubles play moot when she pulled out a third-set win, 6-3, to secure the match victory.
S.C. State got its points with triumphs at No. 4 and No. 5 singles. Marketa Marcanikova defeated senior
Yvonne Kamegne at the fourth spot, 6-4, 7-5, while Dakota Brown downed senior
Krystal Scott at the fifth position, 6-2, 6-3.
The win was reminiscent of the NSU men's tennis team's victory against the Bulldogs in 2013. That year, in a match that was also played at ODU, the Spartans handed S.C. State its first conference loss in three seasons.
The Spartan women will take on Hampton Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. at the Centre Court Racquet Club in Newport News, Va. The match was postponed three different times in the last few weeks due to weather.
