Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Miami (Ohio)
Herd Tennis Falls on the Road to Miami (Ohio)
2/17/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF)
HAMILTON, Ohio - Seniors Maddie Silver and Stephanie Smith won singles matches, but Miami (Ohio) avenged its 2017 loss to Marshall with a 5-2 win over the Herd Saturday afternoon at the Riverside Athletic Club.
"Tough one to lose," head coach John Mercer said. "We had our chance in doubles play to get the point and couldn't."
The Herd, playing shorthanded due to injuries, was forced to forfeit points at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles for the fourth consecutive match. Marshall's Anna Smith and Marija Bogicevic defeated Priyana Kalita and Lena Babunski, 6-3, to even the doubles score, but Silver and Stephanie Smith were defeated by Melati Devi and Nelli Ponomareva, 6-4, clinching the point for the RedHawks.
Marshall dropped a pair of straight-sets matches early in the singles portion of play to clinch the overall match for the host RedHawks. Ana Marhuenda was defeated by Babunski, 6-1, 6-0. Bogicevic battled in her match, but fell to Emily Struble, 6-3, 6-4, in the clinching match. Anna Smith fell in a third set tiebreaker to Kalita after winning the first set of her match, 1-6, 7-6, 1-0 (13-11).
"Anna had a couple match points in her second set, but just couldn't close it out," Mercer said.
Silver won a back-and-forth match over Milana Lysova in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Stephanie Smith rallied after dropping the first set of her match against Ponomareva to defeat the Russian in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
"It was good to see Stephanie and Maddie bounce back and win their singles matches. Both of them played good, competitive third sets," Mercer said.
Marshall concludes its five-match road trip in the Lone Star State, heading to Denton, Texas for a neutral site match with FIU Saturday before facing North Texas Sunday. Both matches start at noon and represent the first two Conference USA matches for the Herd.
Players Mentioned
