The ACU women’s tennis team will take on one of the top tennis programs in the conference when it plays the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Austin. The Wildcats, who own a 15-4 overall record with a 7-2 conference record, currently sit fourth in a tightly wound Southland Conference, and are only one game out of first place. The Islanders are tied for first with an 8-1 record against conference teams and a 16-5 overall record.
The Wildcats are currently riding a four-game match win streak, and have taken eight of 10 matches and put them into the win column. The Corpus Christi women’s team had an eight-match winning streak intact last week until it lost 4-0 to 27th-ranked Houston, but quickly rebounded from that defeat with a 4-1 win at home over Oral Roberts. Last weekend, the team took down Sam Houston with a handily win, 6-1, and defeated Lamar 4-3. Both teams sit at the lower end of the conference, but provided a test for the Wildcats who played the matches at home.
In singles play, senior Micah Hermsdorf defeated Dariya Dashutina of Lamar in straight sets, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Freshman Erin Walker took down her opponent Carolina Masó easily in the first match, 6-2, and narrowly in the second match, 7-6. Sophomore Nada Marjanovic continued her strong season with a win over Hanna Elfving, 6-3 and 6-2, while senior Emily Conrad played exceptionally with a victory over Anna Spengler, 6-7, 6-2 and 6-2.
The Wildcats did not play as well in doubles as they did in singles, loosing two of the three matches. Kaysie and Micah Hermsdorf were defeated 8-7 by Alicia Porte and Carolina Masó. Marjanovic and Conrad fell to the duo Katya Lapayeva and Anna Spengler. Walker and Brittney Reed were the only Wildcat doubles team to win, defeating Dariya Dashutina and Hanna Elfving, 8-6.
Against Sam Houston, the Wildcats won five of six singles matches and two of three doubles matches. The loss left the Bearkats at 4-10 and a dismal 2-7 in Southland Conference play.
ACU is led by Marjanovic, who owns the best singles record on the team with 18 wins and three losses. Micah Hermsdorf is second on the team with a 15-6 record. Walker and Kaysie Hermsdorf round out the team as the only other Wildcats to have double-digit win totals, 13-8, 11-10 respectively.
