Tiger tennis wraps up regular season with home win
Missouri won all three doubles matches and three single matches.
Published April 20, 2009
The Missouri women's tennis team snapped a six game losing streak with a 4-3 win against the Iowa State Cyclones in its final match of the regular season Sunday at the Green Tennis Center.
The Tigers had lost their last four matches at home before getting a big win in their final performance before the Big 12 Championships.
Missouri won all three doubles matches and got singles wins from freshman Jamie Mera, sophomore Kaitlyn Ritchie and senior Sofia Ayala to vault over the Cyclones.
The No. 1 doubles team of Mera and sophomore Mallory Weber won 8-6, and the No. 3 doubles team of Ritchie and senior Jessica Giuggioli won 8-3, giving Missouri the doubles point and an early 1-0 lead. It was the No. 2 doubles match that provided the most excitement, as Ayala and freshman Danielle Day battled back from a 5-1 deficit to win in a tiebreaker.
After the early advantage, the Tigers would fall behind, as Giuggioli and Weber lost their singles matches in two sets each. Missouri would retake the lead when Mera defeated Iowa State freshman Tessa Lang in two sets. She won the first set 6-2, and she won the second set 7-5 on a long 12th game.
"I told myself I wasn't going to lose that game," Mera said. "Because that would leave it up to a tiebreaker."
Day lost a three set battle to Cyclones freshman Marie-Christine Chartier, the only one of the afternoon, to put the Tigers down 3-2. Day won the first set, but then dropped the next two in the loss.
The match would come down to the last two singles matches, which were both must-wins for the Tigers if they wanted to take home the victory. Ritchie went down quickly in her first set 5-1, but came back to win 7-6 in a tiebreaker.
"I was really proud of Kaitlyn," coach Blake Starkey said.
She won the second set easily 6-1. Ayala won both of her sets 6-2 to earn an easy win. The two singles victories by Ritchie and Ayala gave the Tigers their fourth Big 12 win of the year.
"It was good (to get the win)," Starkey said. "It was poetic that it was 4-3 after all the close matches we've had."
The Tigers improved their record to 8-11 overall and 4-7 in the Big 12. The win came two days after the Tigers lost 4-3 to the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Missouri won the doubles point in Friday's match before losing all but two of the singles matches. Weber and Ritchie were the singles winners Friday.
"I've been working really hard in practice all week," Weber said of her win Friday.
This weekend Missouri will head to the Big 12 Championships in Norman, Okla.