Herd Tennis Opens Spring with Pair of Road Wins

Championship Fund

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University Tennis team started the spring with a pair of road wins on Saturday, 4-1 at EKU and 5-2 at Bellarmine.

"Great to get started. Have plenty of work to do, but that's what makes it a challenge that's exciting. Looking forward to LSU," Herd Tennis Head Coach John Mercer said.

In the first match of the day against the Colonels, The Herd dropped the doubles point. However, MU rattled off four straight singles wins all in straight sets. Johanna Strom took her contest at number one as Nour El Ouazzani won at number three.

Thalia Smith made it 3-1 after a win at number four as Alina Mokrynska closed out the match with a second-set tiebreak to win Marshall's 2026 Spring opener.

Marshall then headed west to Louisville to face Bellarmine. The Herd captured the doubles point behind wins by the combination of Paula Berzina and Mokrynska at number and Sarah Copley and Strom winning at number two.

Strom, Mokrynska, El Ouazzani and Smith all picked up second singles victories on the day over the Knights at one through four, respectively.

RESULTS AT EKU
Doubles
No. 1 Johanna Strom/Alina Mokrynska (MU) vs. Masha Fedenko/Ceylin Ipek (EKU) 6-5 UF
No. 2 Zhansaya Bakytzhan/Sasha Parkhomenko (EKU) def. Sarah Copley/Nour El Ouazzani (MU) 6-3
No. 3 Marilou Cote/Izem Elif Olcer (EKU) def. Paula Berzina/Thalia Smith (MU) 6-3
Order of finish: 2, 3

Singles
No. 1 Johanna Strom (MU) def. Sasha Parkhomenko (EKU) 6-7, 6-1
No. 2 Alina Mokrynska (MU) def. Masha Fedenko (EKU) 7-4, 7-6 (5)
No. 3 Nour El Ouazzani (MU) def. Ceylin Ipek (EKU) 6-4, 6-2
No. 4 Thalia Smith (MU) def. Marilou Cote (EKU) 6-1, 6-4
No. 5 Paula Berzina (MU) vs. Izem Elif Olcer (EKU) 7-6 (1) UF
No. 6 Sarah Copley (MU) vs. Zhansaya Bakytzhan (EKU) 5-7 UF
Order of finish: 1, 3, 4, 2

RESULTS AT BELLARMINE
Doubles
No. 1 Paula Berzina/Alina Mokrynska (MU) def. Vendula Kryslova/Reese Parker (BU) 6-3
No. 2 Sarah Copley/Johanna Strom (MU) def. Gracie Hurley/Lillie Willis (BU) 6-1
No. 3 Nikola Kollaritsch/Claudia Fuste (BU) vs. Nour El Ouazzani/Thalia Smith (MU) 4-5 UF

Singles
No. 1 Johanna Strom (MU) def. Vendula Kryslova (BU) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
No. 2 Alina Mokrynska (MU) def. Claudia Fuste (BU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 Nour El Ouazzani (MU) def. Gracie Hurley (BU) 6-3, 6-4
No. 4 Thalia Smith (MU) def. Reese Parker (BU) 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (5)
No. 5 Nikola Kollaritsch def. Paula Berzina (MU) 6-2, 6-7 (3), 1-0 (3)
No. 6 Lillie Willis (BU) def. Sarah Copley (MU) 8-4

UP NEXT
Marshall heads to LSU for the ITA Indoor National Championships next weekend.

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Players Mentioned

Paula Berzina

Sarah Copley

Nour El Ouazzani

Alina Mokrynska

Thalia Smith

Johanna Strom

Marshall University Athletics