The road has not been too kind for the St. John’s women’s tennis team this season. Beginning the year with a loss at the hands of the University of Massachusetts, the Red Storm’s fortunes disappointingly remained the same as St. John’s returned home from Chicago’s Lakeshore Athletic Club still winless, after facing 71st-ranked Western Michigan and Big East rival DePaul. The outing drops the Red Storm to 0-3 on the season, while the Broncos and the Blue Demons improve to 7-4 and 5-4, respectively.
Wrapping up their weekend series Sunday afternoon, the Red Storm was utterly dominated, losing by a score of 6-1 to DePaul.
Senior captain Alison Adamski and sophomore Maria Zivcicova teamed up in the opening rounds of doubles play to defeat Anja Mihaldinec and Dunja Antunovic, 8-2. Unfortunately for St. John’s, Adamski and Zicicova’s victory did little to carry the rest of team. DePaul captured wins in the second and third rounds, defeating the duos of Ira Aleksova and Nataly Tumsevica and Gabija Gasiunaite 8-2 and 8-5.
In singles action, sophomore Tumsevica nearly forced a third set in the second spot against the Blue Demons’ Petra Rehusova before dropping the tiebreaker 6-3, 7-6. Red Storm’s Harper registered St. John’s lone point of the contest defeating DePaul’s Clare Chimel in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).
Western Michigan 6,
St. John’s 1
Saturday’s contest with 71st-ranked Western Michigan seemed to be the foretaste for things to come on the Red Storm’s weekend road trip in Chicago. The Broncos dominated the St. John’s women’s tennis team by a score of 6-1.
Doubles action saw Western Michigan sweep the Red Storm, winning all three doubles spots to gain the early advantage. Western Michigan’s Noriko Saruta and Ashley Moccia defeated St. John’s number one doubles team, Adamski and Zivcicova, 8-6. Junior Harper and sophomore Gasiunaite lost 8-1 in the second doubles position. In the third and final round, St. John’s Aleksova and Tumsevica were topped by the Broncos’ Carrie Jeanmarie and Emily Dudzik, 8-4.
St. John’s lone bright spot of the afternoon was Adamski’s play in singles competition. The senior captain put the Red Storm’s first and only point on the board with a win at the number three spot over Priyanka Parekh (7-6, ret.).
The Red Storm will look to bounce back Thursday, Feb. 22 when they once again hit the road to face the Tigers of Princeton.