ELSAH, IL – The Principia Women's Tennis team hosted their neighbor Lewis & Clark Community College in an exhibition match on Saturday. It was a beautiful morning for tennis, but the Panthers came up short in a 7-2 loss.
Freshman Philena Kuester was Principia's only double winner on the day. Kuester began her morning with a 8-4 win in her doubles match with Ruth Hummell. This was their first match win as a team this fall, and they were consistent with their returns and their serves. Kuester followed up the win with a straight sets victory at #5 singles 6-4, 6-2. This was her first singles win at Principia as she played a steady match, keeping the ball in play and moving her opponent around the court to force errors.
Principia's #1 doubles team, Bissola Lassissi and Kimbeley Peterson, and #2 doubles team, Kelsie Huss and Saray Hernandez Cisneros, both struggled to win their serves and fell behind early. Both pairs ultimately lost their matches 8-4.
Huss, #2 singles, played her steady game and took her match into a third set 10-point tie breaker. Many of the rallies lasted for over 60 shots, and Huss' teammates finished games while she was battling out a point. Behind 4-1 after losing the first set, Huss battled back to tie the score at 4-4. Both women played steady, scrappy tennis scrambling for every point. At 6-6, the second set went to at 7 point tiebreaker which Huss won 7-4. In the third set tie breaker, her opponent hit several backhand winners to take charge and win the match tie-breaker10-6.
The fall season provides the team a preview of what they need to work on for their tournament next week and their full season in the spring. All six players have shown steady improvement throughout this first month of tennis.
Up Next: Principia will send Lassissi, Huss, and Peterson to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships at Washington University in St. Louis next weekend. The first matches will be Friday, September 30 as this event culminates the non-traditional fall season.
