Women's Tennis: WVU Downed by Stetson

By Brian Kuppelweiser for WVUsports.com
March 27, 2012 06:45 PM

Mary Chupa

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In its second of three matches being played in Florida this week, the West Virginia University women’s tennis team was defeated by Stetson, 7-0, at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center in DeLand, Fla.

With the win, the Hatters moved their season ledger to 10-2 overall, while the Mountaineers dropped to 4-12 this season.

“It wasn’t our best performance this afternoon,” said coach Tina Samara. “We kind of choked in doubles play, and I think that affected how we played in our singles matches. We just didn’t have the same confidence we had been displaying in the last couple matches.”

With WVU defaulting in both the No. 6 singles match and the No. 3 doubles match, Stetson was spotted an early advantage.

Despite this, the Mountaineers very nearly started the day by earning the doubles point.

In the No. 1 doubles match, freshman Ikttesh Chahal and sophomore Mary Chupa earned a victory over Sara Lazarevic and Clakre Tatje, 9-7.

In the No. 2 doubles match, senior Veronica Cardenas and junior Emily Mathis jumped out to an early lead in their match, but the duo could not fend off a comeback by Diana Bukajeva and Jen Miller, as they lost 8-5.

“Even though we lost the doubles point, we still had a chance,” Samara said. “It is definitely harder when we don’t win that point, but we have to believe that we can do it when we don’t win that point.

Stetson took a 2-0 lead into singles play and would not look back from there. The Hatters swept the five remaining singles matches in dominant fashion.

Freshman Ikttesh Chahal was the lone WVU player to win a set, as she took the second set in a match against Bukajeva.

“Catie Wickline fought like heck in her match,” Samara said. “Also, Mary Chupa started to figure out what she needed to do late in the match, but it just wasn’t enough today.”

The Mountaineers will complete their play in Florida with a match against UCF on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

A full recap of WVU’s match against the Knights will be available on MSNsportsNET.com after the completion of competition.

RESULTS
Singles
No. 1: Sara Lazarevic (SU) def. Mary Chupa (WVU), 6-2, 6-4
No. 2: Shannon Gunning (SU) def. Emily Mathis (WVU), 6-4, 6-1
No. 3: Clarke Tatje (SU) def. Veronica Cardenas (WVU), 6-1, 6-1
No. 4: Diana Bukajeva (SU) def. Ikttesh Chahal (WVU), 6-1, 3-6, 1-0
No. 5: Lindsey Cable (SU) def. Catie Wickline (WVU), 6-3, 7-6
No. 6: SU def. WVU, default

Doubles
No. 1: Chupa/Chahal (WVU) def. Lazarevic/Tatje (SU), 9-7
No. 2: Bukajeva/Miller (SU) def. Cardenas/Mathis (WVU), 8-5
No. 3: SU def. WVU, default

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