ELSAH, IL – The Principia Women's Tennis team hosted the Hendrix College Warriors for a dual match in Hexberg on Friday. The match came also down to the wire, with the Panthers coming out on top, 5-4.
The doubles featured two very tight matches at #1 and #2. Veronica Volkart teamed up with Bissola Lassissi at #1, and Volkart played some of her best tennis of the season. She held her serve the whole set and made strong returns throughout with some aggressive net play. Lassissi also hit some amazing returns and their pair won the match 8-6.
At #2 doubles, Saray Cisneros and Kimbeley Peterson came back from down 6-3, getting to 7-6 and within one point of sending the match to a 7-7 tiebreak. Unfortunately, Hendrix would win the deuce point to take the match 8-6. With Principia losing #3 doubles 8-0, the Panthers headed to singles needing to win four out of the six matches to get the victory.
Cisneros got a quick win at #2 singles, blasting her opponent with forehand and backhand ground strokes and only giving up one game in each set. However, quick Panther losses at #4 and #6 meant Principia now needed to win the final three matches.
Peterson played #5 singles, and after a flawless first set, she fell behind 4-1 in the second set. From there, she turned things back around and was able to play steady, aggressive tennis to come back and win 7-5 to take the match. One down, two to go.
Reigning UMAC Player of the Week, Kelsie Huss, played #3 singles and lost a close first set 7-5. However, she flipped a switch and dominated the rest of the match, winning the second set 6-1 and the third set tiebreaker 10-2. The overall match would come down to a battle at #1 singles as Lassissi and her opponent traded sets 6-4, 3-6 and headed to the 10-point tiebreak. Back-and-forth they went until Lassissi finally pulled away at the end to win 10-6 and give the Panthers the exciting win!
Up Next: The Panthers are right back at it on Saturday morning with an 11:00 am start against Rose-Hulman in Hexberg. Come out and support!
