Feb. 26, 2010
The Purdue women's tennis team continued the best start in program history and ran their season-opening winning streak to eight by taking down Oregon 4-3 Friday afternoon on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"This was a great win," head coach Laura Glitz said. "I was pleased with the way the team competed. We came out with a lot of energy in doubles and it carried over into the singles matches. We need to keep the same focus and intensity tomorrow."
Purdue (8-0) jumped out to an early lead by winning the doubles point for the seventh time this season. Junior Bhavani Tirumurti and freshman Imogen Golder defeated Patricia Skowronski and Emmanuelle Cor 8-2 at No. 3. Oregon (5-5) evened the point at No. 2, where Julia Metzger and Sabine Fuchs earned an 8-3 victory over sophomores Anna Dushkina and Remi Martin. Senior Michelle Sammons and sophomore Jennifer Rabot clinched the point for the Boilermakers and remained unbeaten in dual matches this season by picking up an 8-5 defeat of Pavlina Smatova and Trudie du Toit at No. 1.
Purdue kept the momentum going and put the match away as play turned to singles. Dushkina quickly dispatched Skowronski 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4 to give Purdue a 2-0 lead. Rabot then pulled the Boilermakers within one point of victory while extending her unbeaten start to the season by taking down du Toit 6-4, 6-0 at No. 2. Freshman Gisella Pere clinched the match at No. 6, where she defeated Fuchs 6-2, 6-2.
"It was a hard match today," Pere said. "I just stayed back and tried to move my opponent from side to side. She is a great player that hits the ball really hard, so I just tried to keep her off balance. She played really well, but I stuck to my game and got the job done. This was an important win for us. We knew they were going to be really tough and fight, so we were prepared to fight back. This win gives us a lot of confidence going into tomorrow's match against another great team."
Oregon avoided a shutout by taking the final three matches. Metzger, the 96th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, picked up a 6-1, 6-4 win over Sammons, who suffered just her second singles loss this season. The other two matches required more than two sets to determine a winner, but since the team win was already decided a super tiebreak was played. Smatova gave Tirumurti her first singles loss this season by taking a 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10) decision at No. 3, and Cor brought the match to its final margin with a 6-3, 2-6, 1-0 (9) win over Golder at No. 6.
The Boilermakers won a match 4-3 for the first time this season after taking their first four matches 7-0 and the next three 5-2. Purdue evened the all-time series with the Ducks and got revenge for a 4-3 defeat in Eugene two seasons ago in the teams' only other meeting.
The Boilermakers return to action Saturday when they host 53rd-ranked Harvard. Action begins at noon ET, and admission is free. Live results can be found at purduesports.com.