The women's tennis team took on 24th ranked University of the Cumberlands Thursday in the team's final match of their spring trip to Tennessee. Oakland City also played Division II opponent Lincoln Memorial and the number 13th ranked NAIA team Union College during spring break.
The number one doubles team of
Liz Aristizabal and
Cristina Hurtado got things started off as they cruised to a 6-1 victory. Needing to win just one of the remaining two doubles matches to secure the doubles point the Mighty Oaks came up short with
Kataryna Kulynych and
Maria Trembach falling 6-3 at number three doubles and despite a comeback from 2-5 down
Isabela Todorovic and
Mariana Espinosa fell 6-4 at the number two position.
Trailing 1-0 heading into singles action and needing four wins to secure a victory,
Maria Trembach quickly evened the match score at 1-1 with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 victory at number one singles.
Cristina Hurtado quickly followed with a decisive 6-3, 6-0 win at number three but the Patriots evened the match up 2-2 with a win at number two singles and took the lead 3-2 with a win at the number four position.
In the number five singles match
Tiana Sparks took control from the start and never looked back, winning 6-4, 6-1 to even the match up at 3-3. All eyes were now on
Juliana Puente at number five singles as she lost her first set 3-6 and was fighting to stay in the match. The second set went back and forth until it reached a tiebreaker at 6-6. Despite a great effort Juliana lost 7-5 in the tiebreaker with a final score of 3-6, 6-7(5) and giving the Patriots a 4-3 victory.
In the first two matches of the trip on Tuesday the Mighty Oaks faced off against #13 Union and Lincoln Memorial University. Since playing two matches in one day both matches were played to decision.
Tiana Sparks was able to pick up the lone win at number six singles against Union winning 6-1, 6-2 in the team's 4-1 loss. Division II opponent LMU blanked the Mighty Oaks taking the doubles point with wins at number two and three doubles and singles wins at number one, two and five.
The team now travels to Richmond, IN on Monday to open conference play against IU East with a 1pm ET start at Glen Miller Park.
