Slippery Rock tennis opened their spring season with a narrow loss to Division I Youngstown State University on Saturday.
The match came down to a tiebreaker in the final flight of singles play. With the teams knotted at 3-3 and the sixth singles flight to decide the overall winner, Georgia Lancaster and YSU’s Sarah Partida Garcia kept the match close all the way to the final moments.
Partida Garcia earned a win on a tiebreaker in the first set, but Lancaster responded by doing the same in the second. However, the final tie-breaking set would not be as close.
Despite a valiant effort from Lancaster, Partida Garcia closed the match with a 6-1 final set, giving the Penguins a 4-3 victory overall.
The Rock started the dual match strong, earning the doubles point after winning the first and second flights of doubles play. Nicole Kempton and Alissia Kivi won the first flight 6-4, while Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak took the second 7-5.
YSU’s Yeseniia Ovcharova and Lydia Foster took the, then inconsequential, third doubles flight 6-0 over Dari Sakhanova and Georgia Lancaster.
The Rock then ran into trouble in the singles sets. The Penguins took each of the first three singles flights, and a 3-1 overall lead.
Just one flight loss away from losing outright, the White and Green clawed back to a 3-3 tie by way of wins in the fourth and fifth singles flights, courtesy of Sakhanova and Slovak before the crushing sixth flight loss.
The Rock tennis will return looking to get into the win column against Division III Carnegie Mellon University this Friday. SRU will travel to Alpha Tennis and Fitness of Pittsburgh to play the Tartans.
