The Sacramento State women’s tennis team split a doubleheader Saturday as the Hornets defeated the Montana Grizzlies and lost to the Montana State Bobcats at Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center.
Montana earned a match point after beating the Hornets 2-1 in doubles play. Freshman Karina Vyrlan and senior Andie Mouzes were the only victors in doubles for Sac State with a 6-1 win.
The Hornets (3-8, 2-2 Big Sky) responded with singles sweeps (2-0) from junior Ana Loaiza Esquivias at No. 1, Vyrlan at No. 2, sophomore Sofia Wicker at No. 5 and freshman Sofia Gulnova at No. 6 for a 4-3 Sac State victory over Montana. Mouzes pushed her singles match to a third set, but ultimately fell 6-3.
Sac State’s game against Montana State saw the same score (4-3) as the previous match — this time in favor of the Bobcats. The Hornet dropped the doubles point again after only winning once in No. 3 with freshman Carolina Chernyetsky and Wicker over Shelby Cerkovnik and Wanda Holopainen.
“We’ve been losing so many doubles points which could have been decisive for winning some matches,” Loaiza said. “We’ve lost so many matches 4-3 because we lost the doubles points, so I think we definitely need to work on that.”
Sac State split the singles matches 3-3 against the Bobcats after Chernyetsky lost (6-4, 6-0) at the No. 3 spot and Vyrlan fell (4-6, 6-3, 7-5) against Chloe Goyette.
“I was just getting annoyed that I couldn’t do what I’m supposed to do basically,” Vyrlan said. “I was just pushing the ball — I wasn’t really finishing it off and I was missing a lot too.”
The Hornets will travel to San Diego next week to compete against San Diego State on March 10 at 2 p.m.
