A&T Women’s Tennis lost CAA match to Delaware

ELON, NC North Carolina A&T’s two-match winning streak in women’s tennis came to an end in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play on Wednesday with a 4-0 loss to the Delaware Blue Hens at Elon University’s Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The Aggies lost for the first time this season at full strength.

The Aggies ran into a red-hot Blue Hens team and couldn’t slow down as A&T dropped to 5-5 on the season and 1-2 in conference play. The Blue Hens have won 13 of their last 14, including beating Elon earlier in the day to improve to 14-3 overall and 4-1 in league play.

Delaware captured the doubles point as Maryia Hrynashka and Julieta Honrubia won Asima Sazan and Nour Gueblaoui in number 3 doubles, 6-2. The Blue Hens also won at No. 1 doubles as Adel-Byanu Abidullina and Eliza Askarova won Lana Caculovic and Isabela Romaniche 6-0.

After Delaware reached the triple point, the No. 2 doubles match between A&T Tapia-Cruz Sky and Nuria Sanz and Delaware’s Isabella Montana and Alina Vasilenko came up short with the Delaware duo leading 4-3.

The singles matches of Tapia-Cruz and Sanz were also missed. Tapia-Cruz lost her first set to Vasilenko 6-4 at No. 2 singles before taking a 4-3 lead in the second set before the match ended. Sanz appeared to be heading for a 9-0 record before his No. 3 singles was halted by his leading Hrynashka 6-3, 4-3.

“I worked so hard today,” said Sanz. “I played well, worked hard on my bags and aggressive forehands. Also my serve was so good and gave me breaks to win some games in a row. My mentality was also good. I felt relaxed and focused on every point. I was able to forget and start after every point. I stayed positive and confident to my game.”

No. 6 singles, A&T’s Asima Sazanin won the first set against Santianna Chrysopoulo 6-2. He fell behind 5-1 in the second before Delaware prevailed.

In the completed matches, Caculovic lost to number 1 Abidullina 6-2, 6-0 in singles. Honrubia defeated Romanichen at No. 4 singles, 6-3, 6-1, and Montana beat Gueblaoui, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 5 singles. Caculovic’s loss snapped his four-match winning streak as he fell to 6-2 on the season.

A&T will travel to Lenoir-Rhyne to take on the Bears at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, April 4 at the Catawba Valley YMCA.