No. 29 SMU Women’s Tennis Defeats No. 60 Fresno State, 6-1

DALLAS (SMU) – The No. 29 SMU Women’s Tennis Team improved to 9-2 on the season with its convincing 6-1 win over No. 60 Fresno State on Sunday at the Turpin Tennis Center on the campus of SMU.

The Mustangs jumped out to the early lead when they claimed a hotly contested doubles point.

Juniors Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova were first to finish when they recorded a solid 8-5 win over Jodoin/Modoc at the No. 1 line.

The Bulldogs evened things up when Pola/Hayley defeated the SMU duo of Kris Roberts and Shahzoda Hatamova, 8-4, at the No. 3 spot.

With the doubles point on the line, the 80th-ranked pair of Heather Steinbauer and Edyta Cieplucha staged an impressive rally to clinch the doubles point in a tie-breaker. The tandem found themselves down 4-2 early in the breaker, but won the final five points to claim the victory.

In singles, the Mustangs wasted little time in putting the Bulldogs away.

Lesniak, the nation’s fifth-ranked singles player, was off the courts first with her 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 99 Marianne Jodoin at the top singles spot.

Hatamova then pushed the advantage to 3-0 in SMU’s favor after she downed Olga Kirpicheva at the No. 5 line, 6-0, 6-2.

Cieplucha clinched the win for her team at the No. 2 line when she dispatched of Abby Hayley in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

Malyarchikova extended the SMU lead when she beat Melissa McQueen 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4, while Steinbauer notched the Mustang’s sixth point with her hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 win over Laura Pola at No. 3.

The Bulldogs only victory on the day came at No. 6 where Bianca Modoc defeated Kris Roberts, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6.

SMU returns to action Friday, March 4th when they play Conference USA rival No. 40 Tulsa at the Turpin Tennis Center. First serve for the match with the Golden Hurricane is set for 2 p.m.