The Slippery Rock University tennis team was defeated on Wednesday in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West matchup against Indiana University (Pa.).
SRU and IUP met three times last season, with each contest coming down to the final point.
The Rock won the final match against their Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) foe in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament, punching their ticket to the round of 16.
Wednesday’s contest continued the streak of classic finishes between the nationally-ranked teams, as No. 32 IUP outlasted No. 39 Slippery Rock.
Opening with doubles matches, the No. 29 team in Division II, Alissia Kivi and Nicole Kempton shut out the Crimson Hawks’ Maria Moskaltsova and Annemiek Sterk.
The White and Green followed that triumph with a 6–3 win by Tina Slovak and Amaia Balaguer Brau over IUP’s Asel Calbay and Hannah Beitat to secure the doubles point.
Kivi continued her dominance into the singles play, defeating Calbay 6-1, 6-2.
Balaguer Brau and Dari Sakhanova each dropped their singles matches in straight sets to IUP’s Lea Von Kozierowski and Ifigeneia Kafka respectively.
Nadia Rodenwald defeated Beitat 6-1, 6-2 to rally The Rock back in front, 3-2.
However, IUP’s Maria Moskaltsova overcame Kempton in a tiebreaker, before Charliz Tabili did the same against Slovak to clinch the contest for the Crimson Hawks.
This defeat bumped Slippery Rock to second place in the PSAC West with a 3-1 record in division play and 9-3 overall.
The team returns to play Saturday at noon at No. 20 University of Charleston, followed by another Atlantic Region matchup Sunday against West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon, W.Va.
