Women's Tennis: WVU Falls to No. 53 Marshall

By Tiffany Doolittle for WVUsports.com
February 04, 2011 09:23 PM

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University tennis team fell, 0-7, to nationally-ranked Marshall today, in its first home match at the Ridgeview Racquet Club.

“If you’re not a tennis person, you’d think we got slaughtered by looking at the score, but today was very different than any other match,” says coach Tina Samara. “Not only were we playing a team ranked No. 53 in the country, but we were really in every single match.”

WVU put up a fight in the doubles competition, but the Herd took the doubles point after two 6-8 losses by the No. 1 pair of junior Veronica Cardenas and freshman Mary Chupa and the No. 3 pair of freshman Melis Tanik and senior Ashley Pilsbury.

Sophomores Emily Mathis and Liv Pettersson also competed for the Mountaineers, but were defeated in the No. 2 spot by Marshall’s Catherine Kellner and Maria Voscekoova, 8-3.

“All of the doubles matches were close losses and we lost three of our six singles matches in three set,” adds Samara. “We’re not on them about winning or losing, but about competing. This is the first match we’ve seen them really compete and they didn’t give up.”

Chupa (No. 3), Cardenas (No. 4) and Pilsbury (No. 5) continued to challenge the Herd in the singles competition, but fell short in the third set of each of their respective matches.

“Our focus is 100 percent conference, so we’re going to have to take some hits right now,” Samara concludes. “The girls are tired from working really hard in the middle of their season, but it will pay off in the long-run.”

The Mountaineers will continue action at home on Wednesday, Feb. 16, as they go up against BIG EAST rival Pitt at 11 a.m.

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