The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
East Carolina
Comeback Falls Short In First-Round Loss To ECU
4/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 19, 2012
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The UAB women's tennis team dug out of a 3-0 deficit Thursday but came up one match shy of a come-from-behind victory in the first round of the Conference USA Championship.
In the end, the ninth-seeded Blazers suffered a 4-3 loss to eighth-seeded East Carolina at the Dunavant-Wellford Tennis Center. UAB (6-12) saw its season come to an end, while ECU (10-15) advanced to Friday's quarterfinal round to meet No. 1 seed Tulsa.
After dropping the opening doubles point and then losing the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches in straight sets, UAB found itself in a 3-0 hole, needing to win each of the remaining four matches on the court.
Caroline Faught put the Blazers on the scoreboard with a 6-4, 6-4 win over ECU's Danielle Terpko at the No. 4 position, and Sarah Witkowski followed minutes later by finishing off a 6-3, 7-5 win over Abby Richmond at the No. 6 spot to give UAB its second point.
Rachel Daniell at No. 3 and Menanteau Moolman at No. 5 were the last Blazers on the court, and both of their matches went to three sets.
Daniell pulled out a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Neena Wanko to even the team match at 3-3, but East Carolina's Yilian Zhang had built a 4-1 third-set lead on Moolman by that time. Zhang shortly finished off a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 win to send the Lady Pirates on to the next round.
East Carolina won the doubles point Thursday by claiming two of the three matches. The Lady Pirates then picked up a 6-2, 6-2 win by Natalie Collins over Paula Alvarez and No. 1 singles and a 6-3, 6-3 win by Renata Bakieva over Isabel Fernandez at No. 2 to stake themselves to the 3-0 lead.
For UAB, Daniell closed the dual-match portion of her freshman season as the team's wins leader with a 10-7 record, while Faught ended the spring with a mark of 9-6. Daniell teamed with Moolman for the Blazers' lone doubles win against ECU as the duo improved its record to a team-best 10-9 this spring.
