TROY, Ill. – The McKendree University women's tennis team fell 5-2 here Saturday afternoon to Rockhurst University in a non-conference match at Triad High School.
With the setback, McKendree dropped its second straight match to move its record to 4-4 on the season, while Rockhurst improves to 5-4 on the year.
For the sixth time this season, the Bearcats earned the doubles point against the Hawks as the Bearcats won at both No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to earn the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
In doubles, Rockhurst opened with a 7-5 win at the No. 1 spot over McKendree junior
Viola Cipriani (Arezzo, Italy/Liceo Classico Francesco Petrarca) and sophomore
Camilla Fonseca (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Saber).
The Bearcats, though, would battle back as junior
Mariana Caicedo Mora (Cucuta, Colombia/American International School of Mallorca) and sophomore
Rhyan Cook (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North) picked up a 6-1 win at No. 2 doubles and sophomores
Emily Kettering (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community West) and
Maria Vitoria Salomao (Minas Geraids, Brazil/Belo Horizonte) earned a 7-5 win at No. 3 doubles.
Following doubles play, the two teams would then play singles and the Hawks would earn the match victory by winning five of the six singles matches.
McKendree's lone win in singles came at the No. 5 spot as Caicedo Mora picked up a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win over Andrea Dabbah.
The Bearcats, though, would make Rockhurst work for its five wins in singles as McKendree won 37 games overall on the day.
Kettering lost in a third set tiebreaker at No. 6 singles against Kaleigh Isgett, 1-6, 6-2, 10-5, while Cook would fall 6-2, 7-5 to Dina Dudic at No. 4 singles and Cipriani lost by identical 6-3, 6-3 scores at No. 1 singles to Valentine Limauge.
Salomao would win five games at No. 3 singles over Dani Lentisco as Lentisco won, 6-3, 6-2.
Fonseca won six games at No. 2 singles over Martyna Jankowska as she fell 6-1, 7-5.
The Bearcats will return to action on Sunday, March 27 with a 1 p.m. match in Searcy, Ark., against NCAA Division II 47th-ranked Harding University.