Women’s tennis sweeps St. John’s

The No. 44 ranked Shocker tennis team traveled to the National Tennis Center in New York City to play against St. John’s, whom they beat 7-0. With the win, Wichita State improved to 11-5 on the season.

WSU won on at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions with Rebecca Pedrazzi/Montse Blasco-Fernandez winning 8-6 at the 2 and Abby Stevens/Julia Schiller winning 8-2 at the 3 positions respectively to give WSU a 1-0 dual match lead.

“There were some good wins in doubles,” Blasco-Fernandez said. “Becky and I had to grind it out when the match was getting tough.”

Satjaporn Mahajaroenkul won her match 6-1, 6-0 at the six position to kick-off singles play and Stevens followed her off the courts with her 6-2, 6-0 win at the No. 3 singles.

The match was clinched when Veronika Blaskova won 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 5 singles position.

“Doubles matches seemed tougher today, but the twos and threes worked hard to give us that first point,” Blaskova said. “Even though we won 7-0, it was a much harder match than the score reflects.”

After the match had been clinched Blasco-Fernandez won 8-5, Lucia Kovalova won 7-6 (4), 6-1, and Pedrazzi earned the final point with a 7-6 (5), 6-2) win at the No. 1 singles to complete the sweep.

“We played with great focus and energy,” Kovalova said. “[Pedrazzi] and I had tough first sets, but we were both able to turn it around. Everyone played so well.”

Wichita State plays again noon Friday, March 28 against Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla.