The West Virginia University tennis team got back in the win column on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Cincinnati Bearcats 4-2 at the Trabert-Talbert Tennis Center in Cincinnati in their regular season finale.
WVU (8-16, 2-11 Big 12) moved out of last place in the conference, as it took the last two singles points to clinch victory over UC (10-12, 2-11 Big 12).
Read More: West Virginia Tennis Beats Cincinnati to End Regular Season
The Mountaineers struck first in the doubles, taking two of the three matchups to win the first point. The No. 2 doubles were the first to finish, as WVU’s Michaela Kucharova and Laura Villanueva Morillo scored a 6-1 victory against the Cincinnati duo of Morgan Pyrz and Sakurako Watanabe.
The Bearcats fought back in the No. 1 matchup, as their pairing of Rozalia Gruszczynska and Gabrielle Guenther defeated Julie Bousseau and Millie Haagensen 6-3, leaving the first point up for grabs in the No. 3 slot.
And the Mountaineers would prevail there, as their tandem of Lyla Byers and Tatiana Lipatova defeated Zeynep Erman and Callie Flanagan 6-2, taking the point as well as winning WVU’s first No. 3 doubles matchup in Big 12 action this season.
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With the doubles point won, West Virginia looked to extend their lead in the singles. And they did just that to start it off, as Lipatova won 6-0, 6-2 against Flanagan at the No. 6 spot to double the Mountaineer lead.
Facing a 2-0 deficit, Cincinnati needed to turn the tide fast to have a chance. The first step to this was winning the No. 2 Singles, where Gruszczynska took a 6-1, 6-2 win against Haagensen to cut the deficit in half. And after Erman won 6-3, 6-3 over Bousseau in the No. 1 slot, it was tied at 2.
Not to be deterred, WVU struck back in the No. 5 matchup, with Villanueva Morillo scoring a crucial 7-5, 7-6 (7-0 tiebreaker) win over Watanabe, with West Virginia also winning the No. 5 singles for the first time in the Big 12 this season.
With the Mountaineers up 3-2, all eyes were on the No. 3 slot, with Kucharova battling Guenther looking for a win. Kucharova took the first set 7-5, but Guenther responded to take the second set 6-3. With the win on the line, Kucharova scored a resounding 6-1 victory in the third set, giving West Virginia a conference road win. The Mountaineers clinched the victory when Kucharova zapped a forehand over to Guenther, who was unable to keep her return forehand in the court.
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With the match secured, the No. 4 singles went unfinished. Byers and Milica Popovski were in a tiebreaker in the third set, after she dropped the first set 6-2 and won the second 6-3.
The Mountaineers improved their all-time record against the Bearcats to 5-2, while also being 2-0 against UC since their switch to the Big 12.
Next up for West Virginia is the Big 12 Championships and the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas. The Mountaineers sit in 15th place and would face the No. 10 seed at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. All matchups will stream on ESPN+. The Mountaineers are still searching for their first win at the Big 12 Championships, with their last conference tournament victory coming in 2008, a 4-2 win against Connecticut.
