Women’s tennis topples Troy
By: Claire Jordan
The Tulane University women’s tennis match against Troy rested upon relatively shoulders inconspicuous of sophomore Caroline Gerber. With the overall team score tied at 3-all, Gerber provided the winning point with a 7-5, 6-3 win over the Trojans’ Emma Smith to give the Green Wave a 4-3 win at the Goldring Tennis Center.
“[Gerber] was a true asset to our program today and she always has been,” Head Coach Terri Sisk said. “It’s been kind of rough on her because she hasn’t played in many matches this [spring] season. When Hila [Elster] went down, I think she did an amazing job of really stepping in at No. 6 and clinching the match for us.”
While Gerber’s win on Court 6 clinched the team victory, Saturday’s match did not start off well for the Green Wave as Troy took the doubles point with wins on two of the three courts. Lindsay Dvorak and Emma Helistén defeated Emma Smith and Lauren Simpson on Court 2, 8-6, but the Troy tandems of Karoline Grymel/Leonie Guijt and Rosaura Ramirez-Vega/Stephanie Vierra responded with 8-5 and 9-7 wins in No. 1 and No. 3 action, respectively, to put the Trojans on top 1-0.
The next day the women gave up a 6-1 contest to No. 40 and Conference USA foe Rice at the Goldring Tennis Center.
Two Green Wave players rallied from first-set losses to force a third frame, but both fell on each occasion. The loss was the first of the year at home for Tulane, which brings its record to 5-4 on the year. Rice, meanwhile, improves to 8-3.
“I’m really proud of the girls today,” Sisk said. “Sometimes 6-1 scores can be lopsided and sometimes they’re a lot closer than they look. Today was one of the latter. We had two courts go to third-set tiebreaks, and we didn’t come out on the winning side of either of those. Today was a great effort. It was a fun day for collegiate tennis. You had a lot of people in the stands. You had a lot of effort on both sides.
The Owls set the tone for the day early on, sweeping the doubles point. The 31st-ranked Owls tandem of Julie Chao and Ana Guzman defeated Tulane’s Levy and Mariam Kurdadze, 8-4, while the tandem of Rebekka Hanle and Rebecca Lin clinched the point on Court 3 with an 8-6 decision over Marcela Fonseca and Elizabeth Hamlin. Rice made it a sweep when Jessica Jackson and Alex Rasch finished off Lindsay Dvorak and Emma Helisten, 9-7, on Court 2.
“It’s interesting to stand here and realize that on all of our courts we had all freshmen and sophomores,” Sisk said. “We played a very experienced Rice team today but at some point, you quit saying, ‘Hey, we’re only two years old.’ Yes we are but at some point, you have to be able to turn some of these matches around and do things right.”
The Green Wave continue their four-game home stand Saturday, March 6 when they host Kansas at noon. From there, Tulane will battle Southern Illinois 2 p.m. Wednesday.