Women’s, men’s tennis drop tight road matchups

Men

The Rams came up short in a tightly contested matchup against Middle Tennessee State University on Saturday, falling to the Blue Raiders 4-3. 

After losing the first doubles’ match, the Rams won the next two matches to secure a doubles point to open the match. Behind the great play of junior Vitor Lima, the Rams took a 2-1 lead, gaining early control in the match.

In a back and forth matchup, the fate of the match came down to court 3. Junior Philip Mobius was in a tightly contested match with the team competition on the line. After losing the first set, the junior extended the game by winning the second nail-biting set, 7-5. However, his opponent Chris Edge edged him in the final set to secure the win for Middle Tennessee State.

Lima won his 10th match of the year, cruising to a straight set victory 6-1, 6-3. Junior Arvid Noren continued his great play in the No. 1 singles position as he improved to 2-1 on the first court.

This marks the second consecutive April loss for the Rams after finishing 4-3 in the month of March. The Black and Gold will look to bounce back Wednesday, April 11 against the Tribe of the College of William & Mary.

Women

The women’s tennis team lost a heartbreaker Saturday against East Carolina University 4-3. After two previous games at home, the Rams traveled to East Carolina Saturday where they were narrowly defeated by the Pirates.

VCU staged a comeback effort with victories on courts No.1 and 3 to steal the doubles point early on. Junior Anna Rasmussen and sophomore Kanako Yano secured the point with their 6-4 victory.

Freshman Paola Exposito Diaz Delgado and Marina Alcaide Bakkari pulled out the second and third points for VCU with wins in singles action. The match was decided in Rasmussen and Yano’s singles matches, which they both lost in three sets.

Women’s tennis returns to action Tuesday at 3 p.m. at James Madison University.

Rodney Robinson, Contributing writer