Spring break tennis success

Women’s tennis beats No. 22 USC, Washington State, and Santa Clara over break

Maria Watters / Assistant Sports Editor / The USD Vista

The University of San Diego women’s tennis team (5-3)  dominated their opponents throughout the month of February. The Toreros entered spring break week with a four-match win streak during which they defeated No. 22 USC for the first time in history, 4-1. Additionally, their top doubles team, made up of All-American sophomore Solymar Colling and first year Helena Francati, earned WCC doubles players of the week on Feb. 25. 

With so many matches in such a short time, spring break was a major test for the Toreros. 

“We knew it would be an important week for our team,” Colling said. “But we just wanted to do our best and take it one match at a time.”

For the first match of their packed spring break schedule, the Toreros faced the 8-2 Washington State Cougars at home. 

Despite defeating the Cougars on three of the last four meetings between the two teams, the Toreros were prepared for a battle.

The doubles lineup for USD has been fairly consistent throughout this season with Francati and Colling on court one, followed by redshirt junior Maria Tyrina and senior Gemma Garcia, with first year Elizabeth Goldsmith and senior Kati Kukaras rounding it out for the Toreros. The Cougars presented an equally strong lineup for doubles lead by sophomore Hikaru Sato and junior Michaela Bayerlova, with senior Melisa Ates and sophomore Yang Lee behind them, and senior Jovana Knezevic and first year Pang Jittakoat. 

Court two was the first to finish with Lee and Ates defeating Tyrina and Garcia 6-2, giving WSU the lead 1-0. But the Toreros quickly tied the score with Goldsmith and Kukaras’ victory over Knezevic and Jittakoat 6-2. 

The fight for the doubles point would come down to court one. And after a hard-fought match, Colling and Francati emerged victorious, defeating Sato and Bayerlova 6-4, clinching the doubles point for USD.

With the overall score 1-0 in favor of the Toreros, the two teams moved on to the singles matchups. But despite losing the doubles point, the Cougars grabbed the first two singles matches with Jittakoat defeating Tyrina 6-1, 7-5, and Lee defeating Kukaras 6-0, 6-4. WSU had taken the lead, 2-1.

Garcia finished next, defeating sophomore Savanna Ly-Nguyen 6-4, 6-4, tying the score 2-2. But the Cougars took back the lead with Bayerlova’s victory over Colling 6-4, 6-4. 

Down 2-3, one more loss would secure USD’s defeat. But Francati’s 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ates kept the Toreros alive. 

Tied at 3-3, the contest would be decided on court two. After losing the first set 4-6, the nationally ranked 124 first year, Goldsmith, battled back to win the second 6-1. And after a dominating 6-0 performance in the third, Goldsmith clinched the victory for USD 4-3. 

Despite the pressure of having the match on the line, the first year was able to seal the deal for the Toreros. 

“I wanted to win for the team so badly that I completely zoned out all of my surroundings and focused on my match,” Goldsmith said. “After I won the last point my body filled with excitement and happiness because I was so glad that I was able to win for my team.”

The Toreros’ first match of the spring break stretch extended their winning streak to six matches and secured their undefeated record for the month of February.

But the USD women had little time to celebrate their hard-earned victory as they would be facing the 5-5 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos just two days later on Sunday, March 1.

Entering the match, the 32 ranked Toreros brought the same doubles lineup to face the UCSB’s sophomore Anastasia Goncharova and senior Dominika Paterova, senior Amit Lev Ari and junior Lise Sentenac, and sophomore Tiffany Lagarde and senior Juliana Valero.

Though the Toreros have been very successful in doubles throughout the season, the Gauchos were able to clinch the doubles point in back-to-back victories 6-3, 6-3. 

Down 0-1 overall, USD would have to win four of the six singles matches to come out the victors.

Goldsmith made quick work of Lagarde, securing the first singles victory for the Toreros 6-2,    6-0. But Goncharova’s 6-1, 6-4 win over Tyrina prevented USD from taking the lead. 

Still down 1-2, back-to-back victories by Francati (6-2, 7-6) and Colling (6-2, 2-6, 6-4) put the Toreros ahead 3-2, and one more victory on one of the remaining courts would clinch the win for USD. 

But after a grueling three-set match, Kukaras fell to Valero 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, tying the overall score. Once again, the contest would be decided on a single court. This time, it was court three where Garcia and Paterova were locked in an intense back-and-forth battle. After three sets and thirty-four games, Paterova defeated Garcia 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, earning the Gauchos a 4-3 victory. 

The incredible four-hour match resulted in the Toreros’ first loss in six matches and brought their spring break record to 1-1. 

Coming off the tough loss, the Toreros looked to the WCC matchup against the 4-3 Santa Clara Broncos at home to end their spring break run with a winning record. 

The Broncos brought a strong doubles lineup to face the Toreros, starting with senior Maddie Pothoff and junior Katya Tabachnik at one, senior Madison Clarke and junior Elvena Gevargiz at two, with sophomore Jamie Schroer and senior Caitlyn Frankel at three. 

Kukaras and Goldsmith finished first on court three, beating Schroer and Frankel 6-4. But the Toreros were unable to earn the doubles point as both Tyrina and Garcia, and Colling and Francati were 3-6 on court two and one, respectively. 

Having lost the doubles point, the Toreros would once again have to rely on the singles matches to secure the win. They did just that. 

The Toreros won the first three singles matches starting with Kukaras dominating over first year Giulia Hayer, winning 6-0, 6-0. Tyrina followed suit, defeating Schroer 6-2, 6-2. 

Finally, Francati defeated Tabachnik 6-1, 6-4, bringing the overall score to 3-1 in favor of the Toreros. 

The Broncos were able to snatch a victory with Gevargiz’s 7-6, 6-1 victory over Garcia. However, Colling closed out the match by defeating Pothoff 6-4, 6-1, and clinched the 4-2 victory for USD.

After the spring break stretch, the USD women’s tennis team won two of their three matches and improved to 7-4 on the season. 

 The Toreros are proud of their performance over spring break, but are looking forward to their next opponents. 

“We had tough opponents during the first weekend of spring break,” assistant coach Nadia Abdala said. “After a solid week of training and regrouping, we are looking forward to playing SDSU and USF next week.”