HAMMOND, La. – The Loyola Wolf Pack women's tennis team traveled to Southeastern Louisiana University on Friday for the George E. Fourmaux Fed Cup Invitational, competing against the host Lions and Lamar University in a shortened one-day event due to expected weather on Saturday.
The tournament used a shortened scoring format, with four-game sets and a 10-point match tiebreaker replacing the third set when necessary.
Junior Bianca Harris highlighted the day for Loyola, earning a straight-set singles victory against Lamar's Livia Espirito Santo. Harris dominated the opening set 4-0 before closing out the match with a 4-1 win in the second set. Earlier in the day, Harris also pushed Southeastern's Bente Bierma to a third set. After dropping the opening set 1-4, Harris responded with a 4-1 second-set victory before Bierma took the deciding tiebreaker.
Sophomore Sofia Amodu also put together two competitive performances, taking both of her singles matches to a deciding 10-point tiebreaker. Against Southeastern's Aitana Darder, Amodu won the opening set 4-2 before dropping the second 2-4. The two battled through a close tiebreak, with Darder narrowly prevailing 11-9. Amodu followed that performance with another three-set contest against Lamar's Martina Alcaino, taking the first set 5-3, before falling in the next two.
In doubles action, freshman Monica Gallegos made her Wolf Pack debut alongside senior Avrora Volkova. The duo faced Southeastern's Kennedy Hutto and Gabrielle Rice before returning to the court against Lamar's Jevrosima Mitic and Lera Zaginayko, forcing a second-set tiebreak against the Lamar team but ultimately falling in straight sets.
With its fall competitions now complete, the Wolf Pack will return to the court in the spring semester for the remainder of the schedule.
Subscribe to Pack Tracks, a Loyola Athletics Newsletter, for all of the latest information >> https://loyolawolfpack.com/subscribe.aspx. You can also keep up with the Pack by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.
Results
Loyola – 0
Southeastern Louisiana – 5
Doubles
Hutto/Rice (SLU) def. Volkova/Gallegos (LOYNO) 4-2, 4-1
Singles
1. Mariam Tetradze (SLU) def. Presha Shanthamoorthi (LOYNO) 4-2, 5-3
2. Aitana Darder (SLU) def. Sofia Amodu (LOYNO) 2-4, 4-2, 11-9
3. Jastine Escamos (SLU) def. Miranda Gomez (LOYNO) 4-1, 4-0
4. Bente Bierma (SLU) def. Bianca Harris (LOYNO) 4-1, 1-4, 10-2
5. Mariam Makashvili (SLU) def. Thandie Sampson (LOYNO) 4-0, 4-0
Loyola – 1
Lamar – 4
Doubles
Mitic/Zaginayko (LU) def. Volkova/Gallegos (LOYNO) 4-2, 5-4 (5)
Singles
1. Arina Gudovskaya (Lamar) def. Presha Shanthamoorthi (LOYNO) 4-0, 3-3, retired
2. Martina Alcaino (Lamar) def. Sofia Amodu (LOYNO) 3-5, 4-2, 10-4
3. Varvara Popadina (Lamar) def. Miranda Gomez (LOYNO) 4-2, 4-0
4. Bianca Harris (LOYNO) def. Livia Espirito Santo (Lamar) 4-0, 4-1
5. (Lamar) def. Thandie Sampson (LOYNO) 4-0, 4-0