CLEMSON, S.C. (Jan. 20, 2012) --- The FIU women's tennis team opened the 2012 spring season with a 6-1 loss to the 14th-ranked Clemson Tigers on Friday, Jan. 20, at the Clemson Indoor Tennis Center.
FIU jumped out to a 1-0 lead after taking two of the three doubles matches early in the contest. The Tigers took the first match of double competition as the duo of Keri Wong and Josipa Bek (No. 8) downed Rita Maisak and Sarah McLean, 8-1. The Panthers stormed back to take the final two matches as Karyn Guttormsen and Giulietta Boha defeated Monika Kockanova and Klara Vyskocilova, 8-4, and the tandem of Lisa Johnson and Christine Seredni defeated Nelly Ciolkowski and Romy Kolzer, 8-4.
In singles competition, Clemson took the first four matches in straight sets to clinch the contest. Bek defeated McLean (6-0, 6-1), Wong (No. 65) defeated Johnson (6-2, 6-1), Vyskocilova (No. 58) defeated Maisak (6-4, 6-0) ,and Ciolkowski (No. 67) defeated Boha (6-2, 6-1). The No. 5 and No. 6 matches went to three sets as Kochanova downed Seredni (7-6 [3], 2-6, 10-2) and Kolzer defeated Guttormsen (7-6 [5], 4-6, 10-6).
The loss drops FIU (No. 72) to an 0-1 to start the season, while Clemson improves to 1-0.
The Panthers will return to action on Sunday, Jan. 22, as they take on Furman in Greenville, S.C. The match is slated to begin at 11 a.m.
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 17 different sports, and is a proud member of the Sun Belt Conference and an affiliate member of Conference USA (men's soccer). Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission and enrolls 46,000 students in two campus and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. More than 140,000 alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU is a member of the Sun Belt Conference and has 400 student-athletes participating in17 sports. In 2010 the Panthers won their first bowl game. For more information about FIU, visithttp://www.fiu.edu/.
