No. 27 SMU Women’s Tennis Improves to 4-1

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (SMU) – The No. 27 SMU Women’s Team picked up another solid road win on Sunday when they downed No. 57 Oklahoma State, 4-1, in Oklahoma City.

“I am very happy with our performance today,” said head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner. “Once again we faced some travel and weather adversity and the girls could have come up with any excuse for not wanting to play today. But, they practiced hard this week and came in focused and ready to win.”

Play was tight early on in doubles as the Mustangs faced some hurdles at the outset. The No. 2 doubles team of Edyta Cieplucha and Heather Steinbauer, who played some of their best doubles of the season last weekend, found themselves down 4-1 early to the OSU team of C.C. Sardinha and Malika Rose.

The SMU pair soon regrouped and rallied to even the match at 5-all, but then were down again 7-6 and facing a loss in the match and a possible loss of the doubles point. Not to be denied, the duo won the

next three games to claim the 9-7 win to secure the doubles point for SMU.

In the other doubles play, SMU’s No. 3 team of Ashley Turpin and Shahzoda Hatamova improved to 4-2 this spring with their strong win over Sarah Meghoufel and Sasha Belova, 8-6. The duo jumped out to an early 5-2 lead and never looked back on way to the victory.

SMU’s top team of Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova fought hard as well, but fell to OSU’s Kanyapat Narattana and Nataliya Shatkovskaya, 8-5.

“Our doubles play was so strong today,” said Meisner. “Ashley and Shaha have been playing good together lately and have just been on the wrong end of some points. Today they really showed what they were capable of. I’m also happy with Marta and Sasha at No. 1. They played tough again today, but were also just unlucky on a few key points and couldn’t grab the win. I am really happy overall with how our doubles teams have been performing.”

The Mustangs kept the momentum from doubles going in singles play and made quick work of the Cowgirls.

Lesniak, the nation’s No. 2 ranked player, improved to 5-1 this spring and 22-4 overall with her easy 6-0, 6-1 win over Belova at the top singles line.

Steinbauer also kept up her impressive run at No. 3 as she downed Meghoufel in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. The junior transfer is now 4-1 on the season in dual match play at the third singles spot.

Lesniak’s doubles partner, Malyarchikova, clinched the Mustang victory with her 6-1, 7-5 win over Shatkovskaya at the No. 4 spot. With the win the junior improves to 5-0 on the spring.

In other singles action, both Cieplucha and Hatamova were leading in their respective matches but did not finish as play was stopped once SMU reached four points, while Turpin fell at No. 6 to Rose 6-2, 6-2.

“Today was another solid team win,” said Meisner. “I thought we came out focused in doubles and then carried that mentality over into singles. I’m really pleased with our overall performance and now we have to remain focused again as we travel to California mid week to take on a tough Stanford team.”

Today’s victory moved Meisner into second place on the all-time career wins list with 87. She now trails only Owen McHaney who won 94 matches from 1982-87 (94-80). The sixth-year head coach still holds the all-time SMU record for winning percentage at .783 (87-24).

The Mustangs return to the court on Thursday, Feb. 10 when they travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to they take on the top-ranked Stanford Cardinal.

No. 27 SMU 4, No. 57 Oklahoma State 1
DOUBLES
1. Narattana/Shatkovskaya (OSU) def. Lesniak/Malyarchikova (SMU), 8-5
2. Steinbauer/Cieplucha (SMU) def. Sardinha/Rose (OSU), 9-7
3. Turpin/Hatamova (SMU) def. Meghoufel/Belova (OSU) 8-6
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2

SINGLES
1. No. 2 Marta Lesniak (SMU) def. Sasha Belova (OSU), 6-0, 6-1
2. Edyta Cieplucha (SMU) vs. C.C. Sardinha (OSU,) 2-6, 6-4, 4-1 (DNF)
3. Heather Steinbauer (SMU) def. Sarah Meghoufel (OSU), 6-3, 6-3
4. Aleksandra Malyarchikova (SMU) def. Nataliya Shatkovskaya (OSU), 6-1, 7-5
5. Shahzoda Hatamova (SMU) vs. Kanyapat Narattana (OSU), 7-5, 3-1 (DNF)
6. Malika Rose (OSU) def. Ashley Turpin (SMU), 6-2, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1,6,3,4*