The season-opening day of action for the University of Evansville women’s tennis team saw the Purple Aces pick up several victories at the Greater Cincinnati Invitational at Lindner Family Tennis Center.
Daria Pentsova was the big winner of the day. In singles flight 2, Pentsova topped Belmont’s Drew Haskins, 7-5, 6-0. Her second match saw her up 3-2 against Eastern Kentucky before play was pushed back to Saturday. In doubles, Pentsova teamed up with Diana Tkachenko to defeat Lucia Seigford and Raksha Bode of St. Francis, 6-1.
Andrea Pascual-Larrinaga picked up a singles win at flight three, defeating Watton of Northern Kentucky, 6-2, 6-2. Doubles saw her and teammate Nicoli Pereira drop a 6-2 matchup to Duquesne’s Kylie Isaacs and Julianne Herman.
Newcomer Marie Kapelevich was victorious in the fourth flight as she faced Sydney Power of the Norse. Kapelevich picked up the victory, 6-3, 6-1 and will be back in action tomorrow.
Flight one doubles saw Chieko Yamada and Theodora Soldatou defeat the duo of Laurel Shymansky and Maranda Sears of Duquesne, 7-5.
Other scores in singles saw UE have two players in the top flight – Yamada and Tkachenko. Yamada fell to Marlys Bridgham of Dayton, 7-6 (3) and 6-3 while Tkachenko took the loss against Laura Argente of Eastern Kentucky, 6-1, 7-5.
Soldatou took on Koo of NKU, falling 6-1, 6-2, in flight two. Pereira played in flight three, dropping her matchup to the Dukes’ Sara Mitrovic, 6-2, 7-6 (5) while Leah Helpingstine fell to Anna Delaney of Dayton, 6-3, 6-2.
Helpingstine and Kapelevich tok on Koo and Power of NKU in doubles, losing 6-1.
Saturday’s action gets started bright and early at 8 a.m.
