In it’s only Conference USA contest of the regular-season, the No. 53 Marshall University tennis team (15-5) took care of East Carolina (16-8) on Friday afternoon by a score of 6-1.
After the Thundering Herd captured the doubles point with wins on courts one and two, the match was moved to the Huntington Tennis Club due to rain and the two teams would finish singles inside.
Michaela Kissell and Dominika Zaprazna breezed through first doubles with an 8-0 victory over the Pirates duo of Petra Vogel and Natalie Collins. Catherine Kellner and Maria Voscekova also won with relative ease as Neena Wanko and Manon Bissat could not hang on court two with the Herd winning 8-2.
As the two teams packed up their gear and moved indoors, singles resumed exactly one hour and four minutes later and saw MU win on courts 1-5, all in straight sets.
Kissell, the reigning Conference USA Player of the Week, had little trouble win Jessica Cook in first singles, winning 6-1, 6-1. Second and third singles were no contest either as Zaprazna won in the two spot 6-1, 6-2 against Natalie Collins, and Catherine Kellner topped Vogel in third singles, 6-2, 6-1.
Courts four and five added the MU lead with Kristina Koprcina winning fourth singles 7-6, 6-4 against Wanko, and Voscekova defeating Yilian Zhang in the five spot, 6-1, 7-6.
“It was a good year in conference, we went undefeated,” head coach John Mercer said. “But seriously, we did a good job coming out playing hard and smart. The girls were playing for each other today and it was great to see the team unity after that tough loss to VCU.”
The Herd concludes the regular-season with a pair of Big East opponents as Marshall travels to take on Cincinnati this Sunday, followed by hosting Pittsburg next Saturday. The Conference USA Tournament in Orlando is scheduled for April 21-24.