Women’s Tennis Downs Marshall 6-1

Sunday, March 31

Memphis, Tenn.

10 a.m.

University of Memphis

Marshall

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Mar 31, 2019 | Women's Tennis

Box Score

Memphis wins its third match in as many days.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Playing its third match in as many days and moving inside due to the unseasonably cooler weather, the University of Memphis women's tennis team (11-8) didn't miss a beat in a 6-1 win over Marshall (5-13), Sunday.

Memphis got off to a hot start at two doubles, as the team of Josephine Cao and Claire Sullivan grabbed a 6-0 win to get the morning started. Marshall answered back with a 6-2 win at one, but an overhead smash from Hannah Davies put away the match at three doubles with teammate Katherine Cao, 6-3.

Lina Hohnhold got things going for Memphis in singles play. With the matches on courts one through four finding the Thundering Herd up early, Hohnhold jumped out to a quick 6-1 first set win at five and put the first Memphis singles point on the board with a 6-2 win in the second.

Marshall then recorded what would be its only point of the day with 6-2, 6-4 win at four singles to make it 2-1 with Alisha Reayer and Laura Bente both working their way into first set tiebreaks at one and two singles. Both Tigers would grab their opening set wins, and Bente jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in her second set. On the court next to Bente, Aleks Topalovic had claimed her opening set, 6-4, then battled back to get to 5-4 up with Bente standing at 5-1 on the court next to her. On subsequent serves, the tandem closed out straight set wins to book the win. Bente won her match at two, 7-6, 6-2, while Topalovic won 6-4, 6-4.

That left Katherine Cao and Reayer on courts six and one, respectively. Cao had claimed a quick first set, 6-1, but found herself down 4-3 in her second set before she rallied back for a 6-5 lead. She ended up in a tiebreak, but again, a quick start found her up 4-1. After a couple of long rallies, Cao twice had match point before closing out the tiebreak win, 7-3.

On court one, Reayer also was in her second tiebreak in as many sets. After winning her opening set in a tiebreak, Reayer dropped her second set breaker. With the match already decided, the duo on court played a super tiebreak that was knotted all the way to 4-all and stayed tight all the way before a netted return gave her a 10-8 decision and the match's final point.

Memphis will close out its 2018 homestand, and play the final collegiate women's match at The Racquet Club of Memphis, when the team hosts North Texas at noon on Saturday, Apr. 6. Admission to the match is free.