Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Eastern Michigan
Herd Tennis Defeats Eastern Michigan 6-1
3/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 13, 2006
BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. - Things certainly didn't go as scripted, but the Marshall Thundering Herd tennis team picked up a 6-1 win Monday afternoon over former Mid-American Conference rival Eastern Michigan at the Huntington Tennis Club.
Marshall improves to 11-5 on the year with the win and Eastern Michigan falls to 4-5.
The match was originally slated to be played outside, but about an hour prior to the start time, it was agreed that the with the weather forecast of thunderstorms and 30 mph wind gusts it would be a safe bet to move the match indoors to the Huntington Tennis Club.
Upon arrival, the Herd would be without its No. 1 player Lynzee Kever after she came down with an illness on the drive to the match.
Playing with a revamped lineup, the Herd came out and took the doubles point with wins from the No.1 and No. 2 positions. Freshman Kellie Schmitt teamed with sophomore Jeanne Schwartz at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point for the Herd as the duo fought back after falling behind 4-1 to win the match 9-7 over Vanessa Frankowski and Yana Parfenyuk. Shannon Brown and Karolina Soor picked up the other doubles win with an 8-1 decision on court two over Elizabeth Syrova and Aditi Krishnan.
Eastern Michigan won at third doubles with Flavia Micati and Laura Fernandez taking an 8-6 win over Jessica Keener and Holly Asel.
In singles, the Herd would take five of six matches to close out the 6-1 win.
Schmitt moved up to No. 1 in Kever's absence and continued her stellar play as she put away Krishnan 6-2, 6-0. Schwartz defeated Parfenyuk 6-1, 6-0 and Soor downed Catherine Bestehorn to seal the victory for the Herd and make the score 4-1. Jessica Keener would rally to beat Fernandez 4-6, 6-1, 10-3 in a ten point tiebreaker for the third set and Asel would close out the day for the Herd with a 6-1, 6-4 win from the No. 6 position over Micati.
Eastern Michigan's only singles win of the day came at the No. 2 spot where Frankowski defeated Brown 6-3, 6-2.
"I thought we played better, especially with the bottom half of the lineup today," Marshall head coach John Mercer said. "We showed a lot of improvement and I feel like we're getting better as we go along and that's good. Hopefully, we'll come out and play well again on Wednesday at Georgia."
The Thundering Herd will bus to Athens, Ga. tomorrow in preparation for Wednesday's showdown with the No. 32 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. The match is set for a 10 a.m. start time.
