The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Herrmann Shines in Blazer Debut
9/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MIDLAND, Texas – Freshman Marlene Herrmann made her UAB debut in style by upsetting No. 15 seed Shannon Hanley of Penn State 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 to highlight competition on day one of the Midland Intercollegiate.
“Marlene got welcomed to college tennis with a pair of marathon matches, but I think she showed a lot of guts and poise,” UAB head coach Mark Tjia said.
Herrmann would ultimately fall 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 to Erin Walker of Abilene Christian in the next round in a match that lasted over three hours. Herrmann’s first match with Hanley finished after four hours of play.
Senior Pardis Kianoush posted a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Jacqueline Zuhse of Penn State before dropping a 2-6, 3-6 decision to Vivienne Kulicke of UTEP. Fellow senior Catherine Ragon opened with a 4-6, 4-6 loss to No. 2 seed Olaya Garrido-Rivas of TCU, but answered with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Alexandra Heczey of North Texas in the consolation bracket.
“We had some nice individual performances today and we seemed pretty poised for our first tournament,” Tjia added. “It was a solid day and we will be better off come spring if we can learn from the lessons that were presented today.”
All doubles matches were rained out and rescheduled to begin Saturday at 8 a.m. For UAB, Ragon and Hana Sisirak face off with Andrea Leblanc and Rachana Bhat of New Mexico, while Kianoush and Hermann meet Lucile Pothier and Ansley Boarman of Abilene Christian.
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