Sports > April 24, 2008

By LK Davey | Staff writer

The Wake Forest women’s tennis team dropped a close match against N.C. State in opening round of the ACC tournament in Altamonte Springs, Fla., on April 17. The match between the No. 8 Wolfpack and the No. 9 Deacons started neck and neck when the teams split doubles matches.

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Sophomore Aileen Davis prepares to serve in a recent home match. After losing the first round ACC match to N.C. State, the team must wait for the NCAA Tournament schedule to be released April 30. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

The No. 2 doubles team, played by junior Christian Tara and freshman Emilee Malvehy, lost 3-8, but Wake’s No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Sasha Kuilkova and junior Sierra Poske finished quickly with an 8-4 win evening the match score.

At No. 3 doubles sophomore Aileen Davis and freshman Katarina Reveche were left to fight for the doubles point. The match started with an early lead by the Deacons, but the Wolfpack fought back to tie the game score at 4-4.

They proceeded to win the next three games and take a 7-4 lead. The Deacs won the 12th game but were unable to break serve and lost 5-8 to drop the doubles point.

Singles followed, and the match score was evened again, this time by Malvehy at No. 4 singles, who finished quickly with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

One court over, Reveche finished her No. 5 singles match with another win for the Deacs, her final scores were 7-6 (3), 6-1.

These wins put the team score at 2-1 Wake Forest.

On the upper courts, Kulikova opened with a 3-6 loss followed with a 7-6 victory in the second set that ended with a 7-4 tiebreaker.

Kulikova stepped up her game and won the third set 6-0. Wake Forest, leading 3-1, struggled in the matches at the No. 2 and No. 3 singles positions, played by Tara and Poske respectively.

Tara lost both sets 3-6, 5-7. Poske, who was playing her first match since an injury April 5, faced N.C. State’s Hojckova.

The sets were close, but Poske ultimately lost 5-7, 6-7 (4).

For the second time that day, Davis found herself battling for a deciding point.

Playing at No. 6 singles she faced the Pack’s Neils Barringer.

Davis took an early lead when she dominated 7-2 in a first set tiebreaker. Barringer then fired back in the second set winning 6-1.

The third set began with Davis taking a 3-0 lead, but Barringer won three consecutive games to tie the set and continued to move ahead for a 5-3 lead.

In the final game, Barringer went up 0-40 but Davis fought back and cut the lead to 30-40.

With a deep shot just inside the lane, Barringer took the set win to send the Pack into the second round.

The Deacs are currently 8-13 and ranked 38th.

They will now wait for the NCAA Tournament draws, scheduled to be released April 30.