Sports > February 28, 2008

By Chris D’Auria | Staff writer

The Wake Forest women’s tennis team hosted an Indiana double-header, facing No. 15 Notre Dame on Feb. 22 and No. 28 Indiana University on Feb. 23. The first match saw the Demon Deacons come within inches of upsetting the Irish, falling 4-3.

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Junior Sierra Poske returns her opponent’s shot during a recent match. Poske won her match 7-6, 7-5 to capture the winning point in the Deacs’ defeat of Indiana University 4-3. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

Sophomore Sasha Kulikova won her match 6-1, 7-5, while juniors Christian Tara and Sierra Poske chipped in wins of their own – Tara with a score of 6-1, 6-4 and Poske with a score of 2-6, 6-1, 7-6.

Unfortunately, these wins accounted for only half of the total singles matches, the other half of which were won by Notre Dame.

The tiebreaker came in the form of the doubles point, which was won by Notre Dame.

However, Ana Jerman and Christian Tara made sure that the Irish did not win all three doubles matches, annihilating their opponents, 8-0.

After nearly upsetting No. 15 Notre Dame Feb. 22, the Lady Deacons of the tennis courts were able to come back from a 3-0 deficit against Indiana Feb. 23 to defeat the Hoosiers the next day 4-3.

Poske was able to clinch the winning point, defeating her opponent in a three-set nail-biter: 1-6, 7-6, 7-5. Kulikova helped spur the comeback by defeating her opponent, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Freshman Katarina Reveche, the only Wake player to win her opening set, defeated her opponent in a sweep, 6-4, 7-6.

In addition to great success in the singles division, Wake Forest was also able to clinch the doubles point.

Poske and Kulikova smoked their opponents, 8-2, while Alex Hirsch and Jenna Loeb followed suit and beat their opponents by the same score.

Next the Deacs will travel to Texas for matches against Texas A&M on March 1 and Baylor on March 2.