The Lady Bulldog tennis team opened their spring season Saturday by trouncing Centenary 4-1.
State exemplified the three S’s that every intercollegiate athletic team should encompass: strength, supremacy and steadiness. Head coach Tracy Lane feels that her squad was not challenged as much as she had hoped.
“Centenary had a really good number one (Anja Schmidt), but outside of the number one I don’t feel as a team we were really challenged,” Lane said. “But a win’s a win.”
Playing indoors due to weather, the match began with singles play. The first team to four points was announced the winner. It took the Lady Dawgs only five matches to experience the glory of a season opening victory.
Senior Marcelle Hirt won the first point for the Dawgs by knocking off Christine Majchrowicz 6-0, 6-3. Anastasia Kugakolova was the only Lady Bulldog to render a match to Centenary. Kugakolova lost to Centenary’s top seed Anja Schmidt, 7-5, 6-2.
Senior Yumi Ueda, who blanked Centenary’s Heather Kelley, 6-0, 6-0, grabbed the second point for MSU. Incoming freshman Haley Rudman displayed her talent by winning her first match as a Bulldog. Rudman defeated Brandy Smith 6-2, 6-1.
“It was exciting,” Lane said of Rudman’s first college win. “But again Haley wasn’t really challenged.”
Justyna Switala took the final winning point for the Dawgs when she smoked Centenary’s Elizabeth Pitts 6-1, 6-0.
The Lady Dawgs were set to play Louisiana-Monroe Saturday, but Thursday morning the Lady Indians forfeited the match to Mississippi State due to unknown reasons.
Louisiana-Monroe’s Athletic Department has confirmed that an internal inquiry is in progress into the school’s women’s tennis program. The inquiry is based on allegations presented by the NCAA. The University is withholding all information until the inquiry is complete.
The Lady Indians were defeated by State last year 4-1 in Starkville.
ULM won the Southland Conference last year.
“It really hurts us not playing this weekend,” Lane said. “We’re still going to play some practice matches ourselves, but it hurts because we have South Alabama on the fifth of Febuary and we wanted to get at least one more match in there before we played them because they are an extremely good team.”