By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
KEARNEY, Neb. – Fort Hays State Tennis fell to Washburn by a score of 7-0 in a conference match on Thursday (Mar. 9) at the Ernest Grundy Tennis Center in Kearney, Nebraska. The Ichabods played to the standard of their national ranking (No. 21) by sweeping the Tigers in all matches contested.
The Tigers won two games against the No. 9 ranked doubles team in the nation made up of Washburn’s Sonia Smagina and Maja Jung. Maria Paz Diaz and Irina Alfonso(No. 1) fell by a score of 6-2. The remaining two doubles pairings fell to the Ichabods 6-0, which clinched the first team point for Washburn.
After seeing each other in doubles play, Alfonso (No. 1) and Smagina faced one another in a singles match. Despite Smagina being ranked second in the nation amongst singles players, Alfonso was able to take three games from the Ichabods’ top singles player, falling 6-2, 6-1. Stefany Stemmer also had a challenging match at the No. 2 position. Stemmer was paired against Maja Jung, the No. 33 singles player in the country. Stemmer won five games, but fell by scores of 6-2 and 6-3.
Fort Hays State’s Kylie Aufdengarten (No. 5) made a return to the court for the first time this spring after recovering from injury. Aufdengarten fell 6-1 in both sets. Grace Unruh(No. 6) notched victories in five games between her two sets against Issabella Pensavalle, but came up short, 6-2, 6-3. Paz Diaz was held to just one game win at the No. 4 singles position, 6-1, 6-0. After falling 6-0 in set one, Mendez (No. 3) was able to notch three games in set two, 6-3.
The Tigers will travel to Colorado for two road matches against CSU Pueblo on Saturday (Mar. 11), followed by a match with the Roadrunners of MSU Denver on Sunday (Mar. 12).