SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The road trip has started well for Eastern Washington women's tennis as they defeated No. 12 St. Mary's University 5-2. Eastern improves to 2-3 this season, while St. Mary's falls to 0-1. The Rattlers are ranked in the top 20 of the ITA Division II preseason rankings. 

"I thought we were really working as a team, and they did a great job of embracing the tight moments. We kept things simple in those situations and stuck to our game plan, while also bringing creative tactics if something wasn't working. I thought we did a good job with that," head coach Dustin Hinson explained. "We didn't hurt ourselves or make a bunch of errors but created opportunities in building the point. It's one of the reasons I like coming down here and playing outdoor matches. It's just generally a slower court surface. The conditions are slower and you can't just hit your way out of a point. You have to think through it and build a point. That was another element where we did a really good job."

To begin the match, St. Marys withdrew from the No. 3 doubles match due to injury. Now leading doubles 1-0, Anait Arutiunian and Sara Vasic secured the point for Eastern, sweeping Sarah Wooten and Breeze Simon. 

The Eagles secured another point to start singles, with the Rattlers forfeiting a match because of injury. EWU then went to work in singles, as Leandra Nizetic won her fourth match in a row, topping St. Mary's Isabella Olsson 6-1, 6-0. Eastern now had a 3-0 advantage. 

 Zoe Pradel pushed the Eagles closer to the match win, defeating Wooten 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3

Veronika Gayevyk then clinched the match for EWU, topping Breeze Simon, 6-3 in both sets.

"I thought my players embraced the pressure of the moment by digging in, grinding it out and being greedy, " Hinson added. "Getting wins at 2,3 and 5, then two doubles wins was a really good effort on our part. Leah [Nizetic] at No. 2 continues her streak and is playing well and dominating. Zoe Pradel at No. 3, and true freshman Veroniak [Gayevyk] at No. 4 were close battles. We fought hard, but didn't come out on top at No. 1 and 2. It was a good start to our matches down here. We have Incarnate Word tomorrow and we're going to be ready to go to battle."

Results
Singles
No. 1 Selina Wu (SMU) def. Anait Arutiunian (EWU) 6-7, 7-5, 10-7
No. 2 Leandra Nizetic (EWU) def. Isabella Olsson (SMU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 Zoe Pradel (EWU) def. Sarah Wooten (SMU) 6-2, 6-1
No. 4 Veronika Gayevyk (EWU) def. Breeze Simon (SMU) 6-3, 6-3
No. 5 Gia Posito (SMU) def. Aneliss Zamfirescu (EWU) 6-3, 6-4
No. 6 Olivia Marais (EWU) def. No player

Doubles
No. 1 Gia Posito / Selina WU (SMU) def. Olivia Marais / Zoe Pradel (EWU) 6-2
No. 2 Anait Arutiunian / Sara Vasic (EWU) def. Sarah Wooten / Breeze Simon (SMU) 6-0
No. 3 Maria Lopez / Leandra Nizetic (EWU) def. No player 

Up Next
Eastern Washington stays in San Antonio and takes on Incarnate Word tomorrow at 1 p.m.
 

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Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.

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