Women’s tennis competes at Mercer Gridiron Classic

The Troy women’s tennis team competed at the Mercer Gridiron Classic over the weekend, seeing success against regional opponents. 

Day one of the Mercer Gridiron Classic proved to be an eventful one for the Trojans. Across several draws and draw stages, Troy secured a positive record in both singles and doubles action.  

Maria Guirguis was the first Trojan to secure a victory Friday. Joining her in the win column was Valeriia Avdeeda. Avdeeva continued her undefeated season with a two-set victory over Georgia State’s Sara Radojevic.  

Turning to doubles play, Avdeeva and Guirguis secured a victory of Jacksonville State’s Irene Artigas Taberner and Angeles Rodriguez-Rizo. They then defeated South Alabama’s Rio Maeda and Jana Rovira.  

The duo of Namyslo and Hindawy defeated the Georgia College duo of Lucy Kim and Alisa Chiang. The next round of doubles play saw the Troy duo take down Florida Southern’s Elona Simonov and Realtin Stara.  

Saturday, the Trojans returned to the court for day two of the Mercer Gridiron Classic. Troy looked to build on their success from day one while taking steps of improvement. 

The Trojans jumped in the win column with Veena Mariam Nazar defeating Jolie Miller of Florida Southern. She carried that momentum into her two-set victory against Middle Georgia State’s Berta Castello. 

Turning to doubles, it was a short day for the Trojans. Guirguis and Avdeeva took down Laura Nadaska and Izabelle Persson of Kennesaw State. 

Day three of the Mercer Gridiron Classic was underway, but the tournament was called due to the weather. In terms of matches played, the team completed their slate of doubles matches but was not able to compete in singles play.  

In doubles, the team of Leena Metwally and Alexia Valdez Zarate defeated East Tennessee State’s Julia Millan and Alessandra Caceres via a tie breaker, 7-6 (7-3). Sama Hassan Hindawy and Namyslo won their doubles match over the Alabama State duo of Jovana Petrovic and Senna Van Den Heuvel. 

In singles play, Troy had several matches in progress when the tournament was called. Hindawy was taking on Jacksonville State’s Sae Kaneko. In the finals of the west draw, Nazar battled Angeles Rodriguez-Rizo, also of Jacksonville State. 

Continuing the Jacksonville State trend was Maria Guirguis. She found herself in the finals against Polina Ramenskaja. On the southeast side of the draw, Zarate was looking to take down Ronja Scheuermann of Florida Southern. 

The Trojans will compete at the ITA Southern Regionals next, with NCAA Tournament spots on the line. The event starts Monday, Oct. 13 in Auburn, Alabama, and will run through the rest of the week.