St. John’s women’s tennis lost its first match of the 2016 campaign on Sunday by a narrow score of 4-3 against UMass, Amherst.
It looked as if the Red Storm were going to have another easy match like the one against Fairfield when No. 1, Natallia Vavulina, and No. 2, Anna Morozova, won their singles matchups to start the day. Vavulina defeated Ruth Crawford by a score of 6-3, 6-3. Morozova defeated Ann Yrazusta in three sets by a score of 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
The Minutemen fired back by sweeping the remaining four singles matchups. The No. 3 singles matchup featured a three set thriller where Aarzoo Malik of Umass squeaked by Olaya Inclan 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. In the No. 4, Irina Protescu of the Red Storm lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 to Anna Woosley.
The No. 5 matchup consisted of Stephanie Elgegren of the Johnnies and Arielle Griffin of the Minutemen. It was a tight two-set match where Griffin ultimately came out on top by a score of 7-5, 6-4. The last matchup in the singles matchups included Carol Benito of Umass and Zofia Stanisz of St. John’s. For the fourth consecutive matchup, UMass was victorious 6-4, 6-1.
In the doubles matchups, the Red Storm won two of the three matches. No. 1 Vavulina and Stanisz defeated Crawford and Yrazusta 6-4. UMass won the second doubles when Crawford and Woosley defeated Elgegren and Arranz 6-2. The final doubles matchup came out to be a victory for the Johnnies when Morozova and Jaide Collins defeated griffin and Laura Moreno 7-6.
Next up for the Red Storm is a doubleheader on February 12th at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. St John’s will face off against the Friars of Providence and the Blackbirds of LIU Brooklyn.
