MIAMI (May 11, 2018)— The FIU women's tennis team lost No. 22 UCF, 4-3 in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Women's Tennis Championship on Friday, May 11 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Miami.
After winning the Conference Championship against Rice, the Panthers ended up the season with a 17-3 overall mark and ranked No. 39 in the Oracle/ITA national women's rankings.
FIU lost the doubles portion of the match.
Ulyana Grib and
Maryna Veksler currently No. 24 in the Oracle/ITA national doubles rankings, fell to No. 61 Ksenia Kutzenzova and Maria Martinez, 6-3. Following the first match,
Mina Markovic and
Sandra Bozinovic lost to Monica Matias and Natalia Serrano, 6-4. Seniors
Andrea Lazaro and
Nerma Caluk were leading 5-2 against Silvia Bordes and Rebeka Stolmar when the match stopped.
In singles play, FIU went to 1-1 after Markovic downed UCF's Borde, 6-1, 6-2. Folliwing the first singles match, the Knights went 3-1 after Stolmar defeated Bozinovic 6-1, 7-5 and Serrano downed Caluk 6-3, 7-5. The Panthers brought the match to 3-3 when Lazaro, currently ranked No. 13 in the latest Oracle/ITA national singles rankings, won against Martinez 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 and Grib defeated Kuznetsova 7-6 (10-8), 1-6, 6-4 winning their 27
th and 19
th matches of the season respectively.
UCF won the decisive match as Veksler fell to Matias 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-4.
Three panthers will compete next in the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship. Lazaro will compete in the individual draw and FIU tandem of Grib and Veksler were selected for the doubles draw. The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 23-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUWTennis) for all the latest FIU women's tennis news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
