Penguins Battle Back But Fall to Cleveland State, 4-3

by YSU

Sunday, Apr 10, 2016 8:39 am

Cleveland, Ohio - In a four-hour marathon match, the Youngstown State women's tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to Cleveland State on Friday at the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion. It was YSU's first conference dual loss since April 12, 2014.

The loss drops the Penguins to 6-11 overall and 4-1 in the Horizon League while the Vikings are 5-0 in league play and 9-7 on the season. The Penguins had won 15 straight regular-season Horizon League matches and 20 consecutive league matches overall before losing to CSU.

The Vikings won the first completed doubles match 6-2 as Julianna Heino and Annina Brendel lost ictoria Bensimon and Morgan Nix. YSU responded with a 6-4 win by Sofia Macias and Dominika Lackova over Mathilde Orange and Princess Gbadamosi.

CSU claimed the point in a hard-fought win at No. 1 doubles. Noelly Longi Nsimba and Nehel Sahni lost 7-6 (7-3) to Isabella Spindler and Aleksandra Golawska.

Ana Stroe quickly evened the match at one with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles over Nix, but Macias lost 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4 and Sahni lost for the first time since Feb. 5, falling 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Bensimon at No. 5.

Nsmiba won a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 decision over Gbadamosi at No. 3 and Brendel evened the match at three with a come-from-behind 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 win in the No. 2 spot against Orange.

The match came down to No. 1 between Lackova and Spindler. Spindler won the first set 7-6 (5) before Lackova rallied to win the second set 6-2. In a wild third set, Lackova had a lead but Spindler went in front 6-5. Lackova forced a tiebreaker after she evened the set at six. In the long tiebreaker, Spindler pulled out an 11-9 win to take the match for the Vikings.

YSU is next in action on Saturday, April 16 when it plays host to Green Bay.