The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Finish Play at Midland Intercollegiate
9/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MIDLAND, Texas – The UAB women’s tennis team finished competition Saturday at the Midland Intercollegiate in its first tournament of the fall season.
Friday on day one, 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.
“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 6-3, 0-6, 0-6 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 tand 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.”
In doubles action on Saturday, Kianoush and Herrmann dropped an 8-7 decision to Lucile Pothier and Ansley Boarman of Abilene Christian, and Ragon and Hana Sisirak fell 8-1 to Mary Hanna and Vasanti Shinde of Nebraska.
UAB continues its fall schedule Sept. 30 when the Blazers take part in the Samford Intercollegiate.
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