Tulsa Drops 4-3 Decision to #50 Wichita State

Wednesday, April 5

Tulsa, Okla.

5 p.m.

Tulsa

Wichita State

Tulsa Drops 4-3 Decision to #50 Wichita State

4/5/2017 8:15:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Riley Ubben

TULSA, Okla. – The University of Tulsa Women's Tennis team fell at home for just the third time this season as they dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 50-ranked Wichita State at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on Wednesday evening. The No. 35-ranked Hurricane moved to 16-6 on the season heading into their final home match on Saturday for senior day against Minnesota at noon.

Wichita State jumped ahead 1-0 with two wins to open up doubles play at the No. 1 and No. 3 spot. Tulsa's Vera Ploner and Martina Okalova came out and won their first two sets to go ahead 2-0 at the No. 3 spot after breaking WSU's first serve before dropping the next six sets to the Shockers' Giulia Guidetti and Marta Bellucco. Ksenia Laskutova and Mahitha Dadireddy fell to 3-5 on the year in doubles play at the No. 1 spot with a 6-3 loss to Gabriela Porubin and Fatima Bizhukova to conclude doubles play.

Marcelina Cichon dominated the first set of play as she improved to 4-0 at the No. 5 position and 21-5 on the year with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Hsu to tie up the match at 1-1 at the end of the first singles match completed.

Wichita State picked up the next three singles points from Tulsa to go ahead 4-1 and secure the win as the Shockers' Porubin defeated Rongrong Leenabanchong 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 2 position before Bellucco closed out Ploner 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 6 spot.

Tulsa's Okalova put fought back from down 3-0 in her second set against Bizhukova at No. 4 to pull within one midway through before eventually falling 6-4, 6-3 in the match.

Laskutova responded well after dropping the first set in a 7-6 (2) tiebreak to Porubin, opening up the second set with a 3-0 lead en route to a 6-3 set win that sent the match into a 10-point tiebreak. The TU junior held an early advantage in the tiebreak before falling behind 6-5 that started a back-and-forth before Laskutova scored the final three points to take the third 1-0 (10).

Dadireddy worked her match against Thongsing into a pair of tiebreakers at the No. 3 position as well, rallying from behind in the second set tiebreak while fighting off two match points to win 7-6 (8) to send it to a 10-point tiebreak in the third. Dadireddy controlled the tiebreak for most of the way, outscoring Tanaporn 10-4 in the 1-6, 7-6 (8), 1-0 (10-4) win.

Singles
1. Ksenia Laskutova (Tulsa) def. Giulia Guidetti (WSU) 6-7 (2), 6-3, 1-0 (12-10)
2. Gabriela Porubin (WSU) def. Rongrong Leenabanchong (Tulsa) 6-4, 6-1
3. Mahitha Dadireddy (Tulsa) def. Tanaporn Thongsing (WSU) 1-6, 7-6 (8), 1-0 (10-4)
4. Fatima Bizhukova (WSU) def. Martina Okalova (Tulsa) 6-4, 6-3
5. Marcelina Cichon (Tulsa) def. Ting-Ya Hsu (WSU) 6-1, 6-4
6. Marta Bellucco (WSU) def. Vera Ploner (Tulsa) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles
1. Gabriela Porubin/Fatima Bizhukova (WSU) def. Ksenia Laskutova/Mahitha Dadireddy (Tulsa) 6-3
2. Rongrong Leenabanchong/Marcelina Cichon (Tulsa) vs. Tanaporn Thongsing/Ting-Ya Hsu (WSU) 3-4, unfinished
3. Marta Bellucco/Giulia Guidetti (WSU) def. Vera Ploner/Martina Okalova (Tulsa) 6-2

For all Tulsa women's tennis news and information, visit TulsaHurricane.com. Follow Tulsa Women's Tennis on Twitter and Facebook.