Women’s tennis falls in road matches at Elon, Liberty

The Troy women’s tennis team fell on the road to Elon 6-1 and Liberty 7-0, extending their spring season’s opening losing streak to four matches.

The Trojans failed to get much going on the road in Lynchburg, Virginia, where it lost to Elon on Saturday before getting swept by the hosts, Liberty, the next day.

Seniors Sanae Ohta, Nancy Karaky, Jiayuan Xue and Efriliya Herlina were the participating Trojans on the courts and were able to win doubles point in Saturday’s match with Elon.

Senior duo Ohta and Karaky earned the first one of the day 6-4 in doubles competition. Elon balanced the match as it won the next match, but Herlina and Xue responded with a 7-5 win to take the initial 1-0 lead.

It was the last time the Trojans got on the board that weekend.

Following doubles play, Troy struggled on the singles courts. Ohta won her first set, but her opponent bounced back to win the other two sets.

Herlina also lost her match in three. Maria Casas Blas dropped her match as well in two sets by a score of 6-4, 7-5.

On Sunday, the Trojans’ Xue and Herlina started by losing 6-1 to the Flames’ Maria Medina and Lara Soares. Rebekah and Grace Hashiguchi concluded the doubles point for the Flames by defeating Troy freshmen Pei Ju Hsieh and Matea Mihaljavic 6-3.

Ohta and Karaky’s match went unfinished, leading to Liberty claiming the first point of the day.

In singles play, the Trojans couldn’t get much going and conceded all six matches on their way to their fourth straight team loss.

Troy will enjoy a three-match home stretch this week as it takes on ULM, North Florida and Nicholls State at the Lunsford Tennis Complex. Friday’s match against the Warhawks is scheduled for 2 p.m.