NEW ORLEANS – In Wednesday's home opener, the NAIA No. 11-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack women's tennis team battled to a close 4-3 loss against NCAA D-I Nicholls in City Park.
It was the closest Loyola has ever played the Colonels, as each team won three singles matches, and doubles competition included two tiebreakers.
Adele Fereres and Chloe Henderson won one of those doubles matches, earning a 7-6 result, 7-1 in the tiebreak. Micaela Ponce and Ariana Salgueiro-Estela had match point in their court 2 match before their opponent came back to force a tiebreak and take the doubles point as well.
Fereres and Ponce each also saw their singles matches go to third-set super tiebreakers, with both Wolf Pack players coming out on top. Lucy Carpenter had the other singles point for the Pack, coming back from a set down to force another super tiebreak and winning in the end.
"We felt like we had a great chance to win that match, and they did come out and play pretty well," said coach Matt Llewellyn. "We had match point on court 2 to get the doubles point, but ended up losing the match 4-3 against a really solid team. So we're going to build on that confidence and get ready for Xavier."
The Loyola women will face another Division-I team in their next match on February 20, as the Pack will play Southeastern Louisiana at 5 p.m. in Hammond, La. Then, the first NAIA opponent is scheduled for February 25th, a road matchup with Xavier.
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Results
No. 11 Loyola – 3
Nicholls – 4
Doubles
1. Grisberg/Inna (NICH) def. #20 L. Carpenter/Vasquez (LOYNO) 6-4
2. Liu/Safarova (NICH) def. Ponce/Salgueiro-Estela (LOYNO) 7-6 (7-4)
3. A. Fereres/Henderson (LOYNO) def. Cruz/Bouygues (NICH) 7-6 (7-1)
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. Lucy Carpenter (LOYNO) def. Qianyu Liu (NICH) 3,6, 6-1, 10-7
2. Micaela Ponce (LOYNO) def. Lea Grinberg (NICH) 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 10-4
3. Sofia Safarova (NICH) def. Fatima Vasquez (LOYNO) 6-4, 6-4
4. Aada Inna (NICH) def. Chloe Henderson (LOYNO) 6-2, 6-3
5. Adele Fereres (LOYNO) def. Carla Bouygues (NICH) 6-4, 4-6, 10-2
6. Dareen Hassan (NICH) def. Avery Frierson (LOYNO) 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 4, 3, 1, 5, 2
