Women’s Tennis: Triple win propels team

It was no easy task for the Miami Hurricanes’ women’s tennis team. Three teams in four days, all of which are ranked inside the top 75 in the country. But the challenges came and went, as the No. 9 ranked ‘Canes beat all three.

The marathon started Thursday afternoon, as the Golden Panthers of Florida International University made the cross-town trip to the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. The match-up was an oddity in the regular season, as these two teams had competed against each other before-Miami participated in FIU’s invitational tournament earlier in the year.

The Hurricanes only lost one singles match to the Golden Panthers. That loss, by Emily Mowery, came during third set tiebreaker.

While FIU was able to grab one more singles victory Thursday, the results were much of the same for Miami, as they grabbed the victory 5-2.

The ‘Canes swept the doubles matches, led by the No. 8 pair of Audrey Banada and Romy Farah who defeated Egle Petrauskaite and Priscilla Castillo, 9-8 (7-4).

It didn’t get any easier for Miami as the ‘Canes welcomed the University of Michigan to Coral Gables Friday afternoon. The Wolverines, ranked No. 25 in the nation, had practiced in South Florida all week in preparation for the Friday match-up. One thing that Michigan hadn’t factored in, however, was the wind.

“[The wind] definitely worked to our advantage,” Head Coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “You take an indoor team and put them outside, that’s one thing. But you put them in the wind, that’s a whole other thing.”

Miami dominated the Wolverines, 6-1 with the only loss in a singles match. Junior Caren Seenauth entered the third set tied at 1-1, but was forced to retire.

The match was started off strong as Audra Cohen, the No. 1 player in the country, defeated No. 65 Jenny Kuehn, 6-2, 6-0.

Junior Romy Farah, in flight three, posted an identical score as she dominated her opponent, Elizabeth Exon. Farah was in control.

“I was pretty consistant the whole match, I felt good,” Farah said. “It was a really good match.”

The day ended as it began, with another Miami victory. Junior transfer Gina Sabatino fell behind Michigan’s Tania Mahtani in the first set, 7-6, but came back to win the second set and the tie-breaker, with the rest of her team looking on as she finished the win on court five.

The ‘Canes welcomed the Broncos of Western Michigan in the final match of the weekend on Sunday. The Broncos were another indoor-focused team from the North. The results were similar to the outcome against Michigan, as Miami shut out Western Michigan, 7-0.

None of the singles matches went to a third set, as the closest any Bronco got to Miami was Kerstin Pahl, who lost to Audrey Banada, 6-2, 6-2. Western Michigan did pick up one of the three doubles flights, as Carrie Jeanmaire and Emily Dudzik defeated Sabatino and freshman Claudia Wasilewski, 8-6.

The ‘Canes will barely get a chance to breathe as they begin to prepare for ACC competition. Their next match will be home against the No. 50 ranked Seminoles of Florida State on Tuesday at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Matthew Bunch may be contacted at m.bunch@umiami.edu.