The No. 51 Marshall University tennis team (14-5) was unable to take advantage of winning the doubles point as No. 33 VCU (18-3) won four singles matches to defeat the Thundering Herd 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Brain David Fox Tennis Courts.
With the two teams all square at three matches a piece, Kristina Koprcina and Ana Bara were even at 6-6 in the third set and would have to settle their match in a tie-break as Bara won the first set 7-5 and Koprcina taking the second set 6-2. Bara would win the tie-break 7-2 to take the third and decisive set, ultimately winning by a mark of 7-5, 2-6, 7-6.
The afternoon got off to a promising start as all three MU doubles tandems came out victorious against the Rams. With Catherine Kellner and Maria Voscekova taking care of business on court two; it looked like VCU would be poised for wins on courts one and three. However, that would not be the case due to some impressive comebacks.
Down 7-2 in first doubles, No. 33 Michaela Kissell and Dominika Zaprazna proved why they are one of the best teams in the country by storming back to reel off seven consecutive games for a 9-7 decision over No. 29 Alex Bara and Kateryna Yergina. The victory moved MU’s top duo to an unblemished 16-0 in spring competition.
Kara Kucin and Karli Timko also came from behind as they were trailing 6-3 to Daria Yakavleva and Manuela Pietzuch, but won six of the final eight games for a 9-8 victory.
The Rams though, would fight back in singles for the team victory. Kissell and Kellner won their matches on courts one and three with Kissell defeating Yergina 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, and Kellner cruising past Josefin Hjertquist, 6-0, 6-0, but VCU won on courts two, four, five and six.
The Herd has to move past this one as MU welcomes its one and only Conference USA foe of the regular season when East Carolina comes to Huntington this Friday, April 8th. First serve is slated for 2 p.m.