Women's Tennis | 9/30/2023 7:33:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 GREENSBURG, Pa. and CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Bloomsburg women's tennis team split a pair of dual matches on Saturday, capturing a morning victory, 6-1, against Seton Hill before suffering a narrow 4-3 defeat to California (Pa.) in the afternoon.

"Both matches were hard fought battles on every court," said head coach Rebecca Helt following Saturday's results. "We needed the doubles point versus California and it didn't go our way, but the team fought hard in every singles match."

How It Happened: 
The Huskies started the match against the Griffins on a positive note by capturing the doubles point. After dropping the first match with No. 3 doubles, the duo of Dasha Nakonecha (Spain/IOC) and Lia-Sophie Seele (Mülheim, NRW, Germany/Luisenschule) evened things up, 6-3. Playing No. 1 doubles, Lexi Quackenbush (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) and Nicole Ilkovic (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy High School) came away with a deciding 7-5 result to take the point.

In singles action, Bloomsburg won five of the six matchups on the day. Ilkovic earned a three-set win over Pereda of Seton Hill, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

On courts three, four and five, the Huskies captured straight-set victories as Bloomsburg continued a strong performance on the day. Seele and Nakonecha carried over their doubles success to No. 3  and No. 5 singles play to bring home 7-6, 6-3 and 6-1, 7-6 wins, respectively.

Anna Chikhalenko (Birmingham, Mich./Wylie F. Groves) stepped into No. 4 singles and captured a win with a 6-3, 6-4 performance. Alyssa Mazurek (McAdoo, PA/Hazleton Area) rounded out the singles victories with a tiebreaking win 1-6, 6-2, 10-3.

In the day's second match, the Huskies fell behind early after surrendering the doubles point. Alese Rinker (Altoona, Pa./Altoona Area) Mazurek captured the first doubles match, 6-1, to give Bloomsburg the edge but fell in No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, facing an early deficit.

The match was tied 2-2 after the first half of singles action thanks to wins from Ckikhalenko and Mazurek. In No. 4 singles, Chikhalenko won dominantly, 6-1, 6-0, while Mazurek earned a comfortable 6-4, 6-0 victory. 

The match would come down to No. 2 singles after both teams earned another singles victory. Falling behind 3-2, Quackenbush rallied for a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win in No. 1 singles to even the contest. 

In the end, a three-set match on Court No. 2 favored the Vulcans and concluded a tightly contested afternoon.

On The Horizon:
The women's tennis team returns to action on Saturday, October 7, as Bloomsburg hosts the PSAC Individual Championships at the Burt Reese Tennis Center.