TCU Drops 4-3 Match to No. 21 Washington

FORT WORTH – TCU’s women’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 21 Washington on Friday afternoon at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth.

The 52nd-ranked Horned Frogs fell to 1-3 during the spring, while the Huskies improved to 8-4.

“They’re a good team,” Borelli said. “I think we were disappointed after the doubles because we had a chance to win the doubles. I liked the fire they showed in the singles and that’s great for the confidence of those three girls that won at singles. They are a very good, very well-coached team. Our best tennis is ahead of us.”

TCU jumped out to 3-0 leads at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles, before eventually falling in both matches. The No. 1 TCU tandem of Katariina Tuohimaa and Federica Denti held a 3-0 lead on ninth-ranked Venise Chan and Denise Dy of Washington, but ultimately fell, 8-4.

The Huskies clinched the doubles point with a win at No. 2 doubles. UW’s Andjela Nemcevic and Samantha Smith were 8-6 winners in a tightly contested match over Gaby Mastromarino and Olivia Smith of TCU.

At No. 3 doubles, TCU had fallen behind 7-3 before an injury to senior Maria Babanova of TCU forced a stoppage to the match that had no bearing on the team score.

TCU got wins at Nos. 3, 5, and 6 singles from Smith, Idunn Hertzberg and Shalini Sahoo, respectively. All of TCU’s wins came after Washington had scored the four needed points to win the dual.

Smith was a 6-0, 6-3 winner at No. 3 singles over UW’s Smith, while Hertzberg picked up a 6-4, 6-1 win over Aleksandra Krslijanin at the fifth-singles spot.

In the final match of the day, TCU’s Sahoo picked up her second singles win of the year with a 6-2, 6-0 dismantling of Vanja Radunovic at No. 6 singles.

After winning the doubles point, the Huskies wasted no time extending their lead to 2-0 when the sixth-ranked Dy downed TCU’s Tuohimaa, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 singles.

UW made it 3-0 with a win at No. 4 singles when Nemcevic took down Mastromatrino of TCU, 6-1, 6-4. It was the first loss of the spring for the Tequesta, Fla., native.

The Huskies sealed the win when TCU’s Denti had to retire with injury at No. 2 singles while trailing 6-3, 4-2 to Chan, who is ranked No. 26 in singles.

TCU returns to action March 5 when Oklahoma visits the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center for a noon matchup.