Feb. 14, 2015
Final Stats | GT Photo Gallery
THE FLATS – The 19th-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team (2-2) came up short against #27 Ohio State (5-2), 4-3, at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex Saturday afternoon.
“We lost to a very, very good Ohio State team today,” head coach Rodney Harmon said. “We lost the doubles point, but got the momentum back and I thought we were in a position to kind of regain control. Then they [Ohio State] fought hard and did a great job to come back. They won some three-set matches against us and we ended up losing 4-3 in a really tough match.”
Tech started the dual match on their back foot, as the doubles point was decided 2-1 in favor of Ohio State. Junior Natasha Prokhnevska and freshman Johnnise Renaud lost at the No. 3 spot, 6-2, to Olivia Sneed and Anna Sanford. At the No. 1 spot, the Yellow Jacket pairing of Kendal Woodard and Paige Hourigan defeated the Buckeyes’ 25th-ranked duo of Gabriella De Santis and Sandy Niehaus, 6-3.
Ohio State clinched the doubles point after Miho Kowase and Ferny Angeles-Paz won the longest doubles match of the day, winning over Rasheeda McAdoo and Alexis Prokopuik, 6-2, on court No. 2.
As singles play began, five out of six Yellow Jackets won their first set. The number 68th-ranked Renaud toppled De Santis, 6-1, 6-3, on court two. On court one, Hourigan, who is ranked 54th in the nation, defeated Sanford, 6-3, 6-4, to give Tech a 2-1 lead.
Three out of the four remaining singles matches went to third sets.
The Buckeyes knotted the score up at 2-2 as Prokhnevska fell to Niehuas, 6-4, 1-6, 6-7 (5-7), on court three. But Tech regained the lead after McAdoo outlasted Miho Kowase in a two-set battle, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5), at the No. 5 spot.
On court six, Alexis Prokopuik took the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (8-6), but Sneed rallied back to win, 7-5, 6-4.
The match came down to the No. 4 position, with junior Megan Kurey and Ohio State’s Angeles-Paz. After Angeles-Paz took the first set, 7-5, Kurey battled back to win the second set, 6-4. Nearly three hours after the match started, Angeles-Paz took the final set, 6-3, to give the Buckeyes their fifth victory of the season.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action tomorrow as they host #31 Tennessee (6-1) at 12:00 p.m. at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex.
–TogetherWeSwarm–
