In the team’s final stretch of home games, Eastern Washington women’s tennis split their two matches.
The Eagles hosted Idaho State on Saturday and lost 6-1. ISU’s team of sophomore Asem Shoybek and junior Stefanya Shalakhova won the first doubles match against EWU’s seniors Isabella Foshee and Kenzington Mann. Freshmen Millie Day and Veronika Zarovna won the second match for the Bengals to win the doubles point.
Eastern Washington tied the score at 1-1 after Foshee won the first singles match against Shoybek in two sets. Foshee has played all of her matches in the top position for the Eagles this season, and her 5 wins are the most on the team.
However, it was all Idaho State for the rest of the match. Day, who leads the Bengals with 12 wins this season, won against Mann in the next match to finish, while Zarovna beat EWU freshman Zoe Pradel in a close three-set match.
In another three-set match, Shalakhova beat EWU junior Anait Arutiunian. ISU senior Olivia Mikkelson and freshman Victoria Grymalska then won their matches against EWU freshman Olivia Marais and junior Sara Vasic.
The next morning, the Eagles took the court again, this time to take on Portland State. On Senior Day, EWU won its final home match of the season,
Eastern Washington won the first doubles point via forfeit, with PSU unable to field a third doubles team. Mann and Foshee lost the highest-seeded doubles match 6-2 against freshman Kasumi Hirayama and senior Nika Beukers, but Marais and Pradel beat Portland State freshmen Nene Uemara and Ayra Salim 6-1 to claim the doubles point for EWU.
Arutiunian added another point to Eastern Washington’s total with a two-set victory over freshman Hana Abdelhamid. She is now tied with junior Leandra Nizetic for the second-most singles wins on the Eagles with 4.
Hirayama beat Pradel in three sets, extending her Portland State team lead in wins to 6 and making the match’s score 2-1. The Eagles quickly responded, with Mann needing just two sets to beat Uemara in her final home match at EWU.
In the top-seeded singles match, Beukers and Foshee battled for three sets. Foshee won the first set 4-6, but Beukers won the second set 7-5. In the final set, Beukers won 6-3 and cut the Eagles’ lead down to 3-2. Her 5 singles wins this season is the second highest total for the Vikings.
Marais won the next singles match against Salim in three sets as well. The final set was closely contested, with 18 total games needing to be played to determine the winner. Marais eventually prevailed 10-8 to clinch the victory.
Due to the Vikings only having five players, Vasic won the final singles match by forfeit, making the final score 5-2 for the Eagles.
The women’s tennis team is now 4-12 this season and 2-4 in conference matches. This week, they will play Montana State on April 18 and Montana on April 20 in the last two matches of the season.
