NORFOLK, Va. – The No. 7 seeded Old Dominion University women’s tennis team fell to the Rice Owls, who are the 29th ranked team in the country, by a score of 4-0 in the Quarterfinals of the 2014 Conference USA Tournament on Friday afternoon at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
The Lady Monarchs, who were fresh off a near improbable comeback on Thursday, which ended up taking five and a half hours to play out, ran into a fresh and talented No. 2 seeded Rice squad on Friday.
Friday matches were held on the indoor courts due to low temperatures in the Norfolk area.
Rice’s No. 91 Katherine Ip took down Ivana Vukovic 6-0, 6-3 on Court No. 3, giving the Owls an early 1-0 advantage. ODU’s Marijana Novakovic also ran into a nationally opponent in No. 101 Dominique Harmath, and it was Harmath who got the better of the Lady Monarch true freshman 6-1, 6-3.
Liat Zimmerman put the Owls on the brink of advancing when she manage to defeat Old Dominion’s Melissa Esnal Olguin, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 4 singles before Rice’s Natalie Beazant clinched the match at No. 1 singles, winning 6-2, 6-4 over Nikol Hristova.
“It feels nice to get the first round victory,” Rice Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. “We knew ODU was going to be a tough opponent. We played them in the first round of the tournament last year, obviously they’re at home and they pulled out a great come-from-behind victory yesterday. I thought our team did a nice job coming out focused with a lot of energy. It’s nice to see us take care of business.”
For the past two days, Old Dominion was forced to play without their No. 2 single’s player in true freshman Ingrid Vojcinakova, who was a scratch due to a knee injury.
Rice: 4 Old Dominion: 0
Singles
1 Natalie Beazant (RICE) vs. Nikol Hristova (ODU), 6-2, 6-4
2 No. 101 Dominique Harmath (RICE) d. Marijana Novakovic (ODU), 6-1, 6-3
3 No. 91 Katherine Ip (RICE) d. Ivana Vukovic (ODU), 6-0, 6-3
4 Liat Zimmerman (RICE) d. Melissa Esnal Olguin (ODU), 6-3, 6-1
5 Kim Anicete (RICE) vs. Nika Khomolovska (ODU), 1-2, unf.
6 Alison Ho (RICE) vs. Faith Atiso (ODU), 2-0, unf.
Order of finish: 3, 2, 4, 1
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