Last Homestand for women’s tennis ends in dominating fashion

The women’s tennis team’s undefeated conference record was put to the test this weekend at a home match. WSU took the courts with a vengeance, fighting not only Illinois State University and Bradley but the unforgiving Kansas wind.

On Saturday the Shocks played the ISU Red Birds and couldn’t complain with the result. They won the overall match 5-2. WSU took the doubles point when their doubles teams of Rebecca Pedrazzi and Carla Venticinque, and Montse Blasco Fernandez and Satjaporn Mahajaroenukl both defeated their opponents 8-1.

The first singles match to end gave WSU another point when Julia Schiller defeated Phyllis Tigges, 6-3, 6-1. “It was a really good match,” Schiller said, “It started out really hard with the wind. When I had the wind with me I could take all of her serves, I just tried to make my serve work with the wind. She made a lot of mistakes.”

The match was wrapped up when Mahajaroenukl handled business winning 6-1, 6-1. Venticinque and Blasco Fernandez were also able to take care of their opponents with Venticinque winning 6-3, 6-3 and Blasco Fernandez winning 6-3, 6-4.

Sunday’s match against Bradley involved fighting a lot more wind, but WSU won the match 7-0 to improve their conference record to 5-0.

All three WSU doubles teams won their matches to give Shockers the early lead. Once again the team of Blasco Fernandez and Mahajaroenukl won 8-1, and Schiller with teammate Lucia Kovalova also won 8-1.

Talented freshman Rebecca Pedrazzi was not allowed to play today due to a rule restricting the amount of different dates a player can play in one season.

“The rule allows for a player to only compete on 25 different dates during the season,” said ITA referee Paul Jordan, “it was put in place to give athletes more time for their studies. Now a player can play in as many matches as they want on any given date and it only counts at one day.”

With Pedrazzi out, Schiller was moved to the number one singles position for the first time and she stepped up and took the match 6-1, 6-4 with perfect form. “She played well,” said head coach Colin Foster. “The weather doesn’t make for pretty tennis, but it’s the same for both players.”

The match finished up after Kovalova and Venticinque won their matches simultaneously with perfect scores of 6-0, 6-0. Blasco Fernandez also won her singles match 6-0, 6-3, she has won 9 of her last 10 singles matches.

“You just have to get the ball in, “Montse said of playing in the wind, “You can’t do much, just be patient and smart.”

The Shockers play next weekend on the road against Evansville before ending their regular season playing the current top team in the MVC, Southern Illinois. First serve against Evansville is set for 1 pm, April 20.