No. 66 Women's Tennis Wraps Up ITA Kickoff with Win Over No. 50 UNLV

Delphine Rouvillois

Posted: Jan 25, 2014

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The No. 66 Santa Clara women's tennis team completed its first dual matches of the spring season at the ITA Kick Off in Berkeley, Calif. by picking up an upset win. On Friday, the Broncos fell to the host school No. 8 Cal, 4-0. The Broncos finished the weekend with a 4-0 beating of No. 50 UNLV on Saturday morning.

"Even though the score does not reflect this, we played very well against one of the top-10 teams in the country on Friday," said Bronco head coach Ben Cabell. "We started slow in doubles, but by the end of the day we put up a strong fight in singles. The confidence gained against Cal set us up nicely for Saturday's match. Winning the doubles point over UNLV got us going, and we won every first set in each six singles matches to take the 'W'."

Against No. 8 Cal on Friday, Nikki Wolny and Stephanie Skaras fell to Lynn Chi and Klara Fabikova at the No. 3 doubles position, 6-1. Cal was able to capture the doubles point by defeating Daniella Silva and Katie Le, 6-0, on court one.

In singles, Skaras could not edge Fabikova on court five and fell, 6-1, 6-0. Sophomore Delphine Rouvillois went up against No. 31 Maegan Manasse on court four and was defeated, 6-0, 6-2. Freshman Silva fell in the first set against No. 95 Chi, 6-1, on court three, but took the second set to a tiebreaker where the Bears wrapped up the first match of the season with Chi's win, 7-6(7-2). With these three matches, Broncos No. 35 Le, Chelby Cooke, and Wolny's matches ended unfinished.

"Chelby did a fantastic job playing at the No. 2 spot for us," said Cabell. "She took the first set against the No. 15 player in the nation before the match was stopped. In addition, Katie was up in her match versus the No. 26 singles player while Nikki did a great job stepping up on court six this weekend. Overall, I'm proud of our performance."

Against No. 50 UNLV on Saturday, the Broncos captured the doubles point with wins from partners Cooke and Rouvillois on court two, 6-1, and Le and Silva at the No. 1 position, 6-2.

In singles, Cooke took down Anett Ferenczi-Bako on court two, 6-2, 6-0. On court one, No. 35 Le tallied her first win of the season over UNLV's Lucia Batta by a score of 6-3, 6-2. Santa Clara took home its first win over a ranked opponent this season with Rouvillois's 6-3, 6-3 victory in the No. 4 position.

The teams are playing in an experimental format in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. They play all sets in singles and doubles to six games, with regular scoring and tiebreakers at 6-all. However, when a singles match splits sets, a match tiebreaker is played in lieu of a third set. All the matches are played under the "clinch-clinch" format and with no warm-up against opponents.

Next up for Santa Clara, the Broncos will take on No. 1 Stanford on Fri., Feb. 14 at 3:00 p.m. in Palo Alto, Calif.

Saturday Results of ITA Kick Off

#8 Cal def. #66 Santa Clara, 4-0

Doubles:

1) Maegan Manasse/Anett Schutting (Cal) def. Katie Le/Daniella Silva (SCU) 6-0

2) #48 Denise Starr/Zsofi Susanyi (Cal) vs. Chelby Cooke/Delphine Rouvillois (SCU) Abandoned

3) Lynn Chi/Klara Fabikova (Cal) def. Nikki Wolny/Stephanie Skaras (SCU) 6-1

Cal captured the doubles point.

Order of Finish: 3, 1.

Singles:

1) #26 Anett Schutting (Cal) vs. #35 Katie Le (SCU) Abandoned

2) #15 Denise Starr (Cal) vs. Chelby Cooke (SCU) Abandoned