MOBILE, Ala.- The Ave Maria University women's tennis team made school history on Wednesday, winning 4-3 over Lindsey Wilson College in the round of 16 of the NAIA National Championships in Mobile, Alabama. The women's tennis program becomes the first team in University history to advance to the national quarterfinals. The win also marked AMU's first national tournament win in the history of the women's tennis program.
The Gyrenes got what proved to be a crucial point in doubles play, winning the top two matches to take a 1-0 lead. The nationally-ranked duo of Lara Teodoro and Vitoria Barandas cruised to a 6-2 victory at the top doubles flight, while the team of Andrea Rodriguez Oria and Regina Ruiz, who were teaming together for the first time in more than three months, supplied the clinching point with a 6-4 win at the second flight.
In singles play, Ave Maria needed just three singles wins to move on to the national quarterfinals, and got two of them with ease. Teodoro played one of her best matches of the season to earn a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Lindsey Wilson's nationally ranked top player, Reshma Challarapu. Barandas also finished off an undefeated day, winning 6-1, 6-3.
Lindsey Wilson responded with straight set victories in the fifth and sixth flights, bringing the score to 3-2 and putting the fate of the match on the results of the third and fourth flights.
For the second year in a row, Andrea Rodriguez Oria won her match in the third set, with this win sending the Gyrenes to the final eight. The Spainard, playing one spot above her normal slot at the second flight, claimed a 6-4 win in the first set, then dropped the second set, 6-1. With the season on the line, Rodriguez Oria came through with a 6-2 win in the final set, clinching one of the biggest wins in University history.
Next for the fifth-seeded Gyrenes is a meeting with the tournament's No. 13 seed, Tennessee Wesleyan University. Tennessee Wesleyan knocked off fourth-seeded LSU Alexandria on Wednesday, setting up a matchup with the Gyrenes for a trip to the national semifinals. Opening serve from the Mobile Tennis Center is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. local time, 10:00 eastern.
