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CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati women's tennis team had a heroic performance but narrowly lost to Dayton by a margin of 4-3.
Dayton 4, Cincinnati 3
March 28, 2015 - Western Tennis & Fitness Center
Singles Order of Finish | 6, 3, 1, 2, 4, 5
Doubles Order of Finish | 1, 2, 3
// DOUBLES
No. 1 | Lauren Bellinger/Kelly Poggensee-Wei (UC) def. Marlys Bridgham/Mandy Marchant (UD), 8-1
No. 2 | Alex Townsend/Jackie Kawamoto (UD) def. Katya Bure/Natalia Abdalla (UC), 8-3
No. 3 | Carly Peck/Katie Sheperd (UD) def. Samantha Perry/Hannah Wille (UC), 8-5
The duo of Lauren Bellinger (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Jerome) and Kelly Poggensee-Wei (Lake Villa, Ill./Grayslake North) didn't waste any time for their doubles match winning the first five games. The pair would drop just one en route to winning by an 8-1 score.
Katya Bure (Springfield, N.J./Jonathan Dayton) and Natalia Abdalla (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Augusto Laranja) trailed the entire match and fell 8-3 to their opponent. Samantha Perry (Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich./Grosse Point South) and Hannah Wille (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway Central) started off from behind for their doubles match but were able to knot it up at four. The team was able to earn their first lead of the match after winning the next game to make it 5-4 but the Flyers were able to win the next four games and gave Dayton the doubles point to lead early in the match at 1-0.
// SINGLES
No. 1 | Kelly Poggensee-Wei (UC) def. Marlys Bridgham (UD), 6-4, 6-3
No. 2 | Katya Bure (UC) def. Alex Townsend (UD), 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 | Lauren Bellinger (UC) def. Carly Peck (UD), 6-2, 6-0,
No. 4 | Jackie Kawamoto (UD) def. Hannah Wille (UC), 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 | Mandy Marchant (UD) def. Natalia Abdalla (UC), 3-6 7-6 (5), 6-2
No. 6 | Jade Kawamoto (UD) def. Samantha Perry (UC), 6-2, 6-0
After losing the first game of the first set, Bellinger won six of the next seven games to take the first set 6-2. Peck of the Flyers started fast again in the second set to take a 2-0 lead, but Bellinger answered as she won the next six games and the second set by a margin of 6-2 to give the Bearcats their first point of the match.
Poggensee-Wei began her singles match down 1-0, but won the next two games to take a 2-1 lead. From there, Poggensee-Wei and her opponent took turns winning games and the Lake Villa native went on to win the first set 6-4. In the second set Poggensee-Wei opened up with 3-2 lead and won the next three of four games to win the set 6-3 and pick up the second point for Cincinnati.
Bure started her singles match losing the first game but never lost her composure as she went on to win six of the next seven games to earn the first set by a 6-2 score. Bure saw a similar situation in the second set as she was down 1-0 and again won six of the next seven games to win by an identical score of 6-2.
The match came down to court No. 5 with the score tied at three. Abdalla had fallen early, down 2-1, but was able to claim the next two games and push the lead at 4-2, going on to win the first set 6-3. After losing four the first five games in the second set, the Sao Paulo native mounted a comeback to tie it at five all. From there each player broke serve to force a tiebreak. Marchant won the tiebreaker by a slim margin of 7-5 to take the second set. In the decisive third set Abdalla was unable to carry that momentum and lost 6-2 giving the Flyers the match. This singles match totaled three hours and 31 minutes.
// UP NEXT
The Bearcats will look to bounce back when they travel across the city to take on their Cross-town Rival Xavier, on Wednesday April 1 at 3 p.m.