The Mean Green tennis team (3-0) dialed up a 6-1 score against Lamar (0-2), which marks North Texas’ 10th straight win against the Cardinals. The last time that Mean Green tennis started 3-0 was 15 years ago back in 2005. This year’s roster features one of the younger teams in Texas.
Doubles played early Sunday evening had the same results as the past two weeks, all three doubles pairs came out with the win.
The freshmen pair of Hummel and Zhou edged out their opponent 6-2, and on the court, over junior Surapaneni and sophomore Ponomareva won 6-4.
Alex Heczey and Hala Khaled Badwy won by a score of 6-2. A big factor that the score might not show, but affected the players on the court, was the wind. The winds were up to 15 mph during today’s matches.
“It was awful,” Badwy said. “When I smacked the ball, it was either short or would go too far and hit the fence, depending on which side you are on the court.”
Co-captain and senior Haruka Saski won 6-1, 6-1. Freshmen Kexuan Zhou defeated her opponent 6-3, 6-2 and Hala Badwy had a bounce-back match in singles this week and won 6-1, 6-3 after losing last week’s match. Alex Heczey took a day off of singles play today and cheered on her teammates.
“They all stepped up, we gave our top player rest today and they all stepped up,” head coach Sujay Lama said. “No one blinked and everyone was confident. You can definitely see trust in this team. We still have a ways to go and a lot of work ahead. I’m excited for this week in practice.”
Results —
Singles:
Surapaneni def. Buchta: 7-6, 6-3
Badwy def. Vitale: 6-1, 6-3
Ponomareva def. Jolie: 6-4, 5-1 (R)
Zhou def. Molina: 6-3, 6-2
Hummel loss. Sola: 6-4, 3-6, 7-10 (T)
Sasaki def. Rehi: 6-1, 6-1
Doubles:
Heczey/Badwy def. Buchta/Jolie: 6-2
Surapaneni/Ponomareva def. Molina/Vitale: 6-4
Hummel/Zhou def. Wong/Sola: 6-2
Featured Image: Senior Alexandra Heczey returns serve from Mean Green teammate Maria Ponomareva in practice on Jan. 24, 2020. Image by Zachary Thomas
Article Originally Published by on North Texas Daily
Source: North Texas Daily
