Women’s Tennis Competes at University of Northern Iowa

For the third time this season Drake Women’s Tennis wins 7-0. Women’s tennis traveled to Cedar Falls Iowa to compete against University of Northern Iowa. This was the Bulldogs first conference match of the season.
The Bulldogs took the courts at 1pm on Friday to begin the match. Drake women’s tennis had a great start to the match by capturing all of the doubles matches. Doubles 1, with seniors  Maria Tatarnikova and Liza Petushkova  finished first, winning their set 6-3. Doubles 3 finished next clinching the doubles point, Ines Stephani and her partner won their set 6-2. Finally, Doubles 2 with Senior Megan Webb and Junior Kelsey Neville won their set 6-2.
Heading into singles the Bulldogs had a 1-0 lead over the Jaguars. Stephani was the first Bulldog to finish her match, winning her match 6-3, and was up 2-0. Due to an injury Stephani’s opponent Harri Proudfoot had to retire. Neville finished her match 6-4,6-3 helping the bulldogs get yet another singles point.
Neville explains her thoughts on the match, “It was great to be able to play a conference match because this time last year we were not able to play because our season got canceled due to COVID. So being out there on Friday was really nice, it was extra special that we were able to get a win as well,” She said.
At position 1, Liza Petushkova won her match 6-2,6-4. Next, Maria Tatarnikova captured yet another win for the bulldogs, winning her match 6-2,6-2. Daria Walczak came back in her match to win in three sets. The junior dropped the first set after a tough hard fought battle. Although that did not stop her, she came back fighting hard to win the second set. Walczak played a ten point tie instead of a full third set because Drake had already clinched the match. Walczak finished the third set off after a great fight 13-12 and was able to get the win at singles 2, 4-6,6-3,13-11.
Walczak explains her thoughts on her match as well as the team’s third 7-0 win, “I really enjoyed being able to compete this weekend especially because it was a conference match. Being able to win 7-0 again is not easy, I am super proud of the team for all of the hard work that everyone is putting in,” She said.
The Bulldogs now have a record of 5-4 overall and a 1-2 record for away matches. Stephani is proud of how this past weekend went but is still focused on the rest of the season, “It was great to get another win as a team, I can’t wait to see what else we can do as a team during the rest of our season,” She said. Women’s tennis is also currently undefeated against teams in their conference with a record of 1-0.
Drake Women’s Tennis will have two home Dual matches this upcoming weekend. Their first match will be on Saturday March 20th against Creighton University and another match will be played on Sunday March 21st against University of Missouri. The Bulldogs next conference match will be at home against Valparaiso on April 3rd.