Rams fall short in competitive match-up against Memphis Tigers, 4-3

Kyler Gilliam, Contributing Writer 

Andrew McGhan, Contributing Writer

The VCU women’s tennis team lost to the University of Memphis Tigers on Friday, March 22, 4-3, in a tight matchup. 

This is VCU’s second straight loss, bringing their spring season record to 11-4, according to VCU Athletics.

VCU head coach Vivian Segnini said she was still very pleased by the efforts of her team on Friday.

“I’m very proud of them, it was a really tough match,” Segnini said. 

Memphis won the doubles point after winning the first two matches to conclude, thus ending the third match prematurely. 

Memphis first-year Leonie Moeller and third-year Emily Meyer defeated VCU third-year Yelizaveta Karlova and second-year Emma Valletta 6-2 in the first doubles match to conclude.

“I think it was a good set that we played, considering the fact that Emma Valletta was injured the last two weeks,” Karlova said. “Also, those girls we played against, they were really good, so I don’t feel bad about our loss.” 

Memphis fourth-year Camila Soares and fifth-year Monique Woog defeated VCU first-years Tiziana Rossini and Emma Rizzetto 6-3 in the second match to conclude. This match clinched the doubles point for the Tigers.

Rossini said she and Rizzetto tried to close the scoring gap midway through the match, however, Memphis’ Soares and Woog were playing with high intensity stopping any potential comeback.

“We were close the first games, we weren’t playing good, but still, we knew that we could do better,” Rossini said. “So we kept trying to find a way, they were playing really aggressive, and we couldn’t find a way.”

The third doubles match ended prematurely. It was a matchup between VCU third-year Anja Draskovic and first-year Tania Isabel Andrade Sabando and Memphis redshirt third-year Alice Amendola and third-year Miriam Grossmann, which saw VCU leading 5-4 before it was called off, due to Memphis clinching the doubles point.

The singles portion of the match started, and VCU needed to win four out of the six singles matches to claim victory over Memphis.

The first match to conclude was Amendola who took down Rizzetto 7-5 in the first set, and then 6-3 in the second, according to StatBroadcast. This would give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the overall score.

Valletta and Woog split the first two sets with Woog winning the first 6-4 and Valletta winning the second 6-2, according to StatBroadcast. Valletta took care of business, defeating Woog 6-0 in the final set, giving VCU their first point of the match.

The third match to finish was between Meyer and Draskovic, according to StatBroadcast. Meyer won both sets by a score of 6-3 and 7-6.

This made the overall score 3-1 in favor of Memphis.

Karlova faced off against Soares in the fourth match where in the first set, Karolova faced a deficit against Soraes before surging back to win the set 7-5, according to StatBroadcast. 

The second set was very back-and-forth between the two players with Karlova winning the set 7-6.

The loss in the doubles match did not negatively impact her going into the singles match, according to Karlova.

“I was really excited about the singles match,” Karlova said. “I knew that we could do better, and doubles doesn’t really define the result of the whole day.”

With the singles win, the Memphis lead was cut to one, making the overall 3-2, still in Memphis’ favor.

VCU’s Rossini went up against Memphis second-year Micah Pierce in a thrilling match; VCU needed to secure this match if they wanted a chance to win the game.

Rossini won the first set 6-3, and Pierce won the second set 6-2, according to StatBroadcast. It set up a back-and-forth third set where it went down to the wire for Rossini to win the set 7-5.

Rossini said she had to play with more intensity against Pierce to try and get the win for the team.

“She was playing really good, and she was not missing, so I had to play aggressive and really attack, and that’s what I did, and I try to stay in the match,” Rossini said. “Fighting for me and for the team.”

VCU tied the overall score at 3-3.

The game-deciding match came down to a thriller between Andrade Sabando and Moeller.

Moeller won a nail-biting first set 7-6 and Andrade Sabando won the second set 6-3, according to StatBroadcast. 

That win set up the final set of the game, which resulted in Moeller sealing the game for the Tigers by winning the third set 6-4.

The final overall score was 4-3 in favor of the Tigers.

VCU women’s tennis faces off against East Tennessee State University on Friday, March 29 at 1 p.m.