In their first appearance of the season, the Sacramento State women’s tennis team (0-1) dropped their match against the University of San Francisco 2-5 on Wednesday afternoon at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club.

The women battled it out in a contest that lasted 10 minutes shy of the four hour mark. Sac State women’s tennis coach, Dima Hrynashka, commented on the physicality of the match and said the duration challenged both teams.

“It was up and down for both teams, it’s really tough to start with matches that are four hours long right after Christmas break,” Hrynashka said. “I can say the women were not physically ready. It’s tough to play your first match four hours long, you saw that some [women] had cramps on the court.”

At doubles no. 1, Deimante Bulatovaite and Tori Trylovich were quickly downed by the Dons’ Andrea Ka and Marina Nikolic 1-6.

In no. 3 doubles, between Sac State’s Ana Loaiza Esquivias and Alina Soltanici and USF’s Genevieve McCloskey and Thyra Taune, the competition came down to a tiebreaker, where the Dons were able to pull out the first point (1-0) with an 8-6 victory over the Hornets.

This marked the first collegiate start for freshman Loaiza Esquivias, who was partnered up with returning sophomore Soltanici.

No. 1 player for the Hornets, Jennifer Nguyen, played in doubles position no. 2 with fellow junior Olivia Boija. Nguyen suffered an ACL injury in her right knee during March last season; this was her first competitive match since her surgery. The junior duo were the only ones to come out with a victory during that portion of play for the Hornets. They defeated the Dons’ Milicia Hadzi-Tanovic and Ines Teixeira 6-1.

Sac State possessed a commanding start during the singles matches as Trylovich was able to collect a clean sweep in the first set against her opponent McCloskey at the no. 5 position, 6-0. In her second set she was able to squander the USF player 6-3. The sophomore was a redshirt freshman last season and earned her first collegiate win as a Hornet.

Freshman Loaiza Esquivias captured the second point for the women as she finished off her first singles opponent 6-2, 6-4 and concluded the third individuals match of the contest. This evened up the competition at 2-2. Her doubles partner Bulatovaite played at singles position no. 2 and fell to USF’s Taune 6-2, 6-0.

It came down to the wire in singles no. 1, 3 and 5, where all three positions were forced into a third set. Soltanici took over as the no. 1 player due to Nguyen not being 100 percent healthy enough to play. The sophomore won her first set 7-5 after she battled back and rallied her way to a win, but she fell in the next two sets (6-3, 6-1).

Hrynashka commented on the absence of their top player in the singles lineup.

“Jennifer is on recovery, she played doubles today and she looked good. She feels much better,” Hrynashka said. “We’ll see how soon she can start to play singles, and I think also in a week or two weeks maybe Daria [Savchenko] can start to play singles. With them back our lineup will be much stronger.”

Savchenko also took over no. 1 singles duties when Nguyen went down. She was scratched from today’s contest due to having tendonitis in her right shoulder.

Hornet’s junior returner Boija was in control in her first set at no. 5 as she beat USF’s Hadzi-Tanovic 6-2 and had a lead going into the second and third sets, but her opponent rallied back in both sets to secure the win for the Dons. At that point they were leading 4-2.

The final match to be concluded was singles no. 3, where sophomore Anna-Maria Nau made her collegiate debut. She took the first set 7-5, but was downed by Nikolic in the subsequent sets (5-7, 3-6). Nau was the one who was attended to by the trainers for having cramps.

Hrynashka said he was proud of his team’s showing considering the circumstances and gave credit to the three freshmen who were able to contribute.

“This first match was tough. There were three freshmen and it was their first time playing on our team,” Hrynashka said. “it’s kind of a tough start since they don’t have college experience. Two of them won today and one lost in her third set. They will improve and soon they’ll show a good game.”

On Saturday, the Hornets will look for their first win of the season against San Jose State as they will host them at home for a 1 p.m. start time.