TAMPA- The University of South Florida women's tennis team traveled to Clemson, South Carolina, on Friday to take on the No. 10 Clemson Tigers. The Bulls fell to the Tigers 6-1.
Senior Lauren Shumate and redshirt sophomore Janette Bejlkova started the day out for the Bulls with a win in their flight three doubles match against Estefania Balda and Nelli Ciolkowski. Shumate and Bejlkova downed Balda and Ciolkowski 8-2.
No. 15 junior Irene Rehberger and senior Melissa Koning kept the momentum going for the Bulls in their flight one doubles match against No. 14 Josipa Bek and Ina Hadziselimovic. Rehberger and Koning beat Bok and Hadziselimovic 8-5 and that gave the Bulls the 1-0 lead heading into singles competition.
Senior Allyn Mueller and freshman Ecaterina Vasenina also competed in doubles action for the Bulls in the flight two doubles spot against Keri Wong and Laurianne Henry. Mueller and Vasenina fell to Wong and Henry 8-4.
Koning started out singles competition for USF on Friday in her flight two singles match against No. 58 Wong. Koning fell to Wong in two sets 6-3, 6-1. That evened things up between the two teams.
Senior Jessica Zok competed in the flight five singles spot against Henry. Zok lost to Henry in two sets 6-4, 6-2 and that gave the Tigers their first lead of the day.
No. 35 Rehberger competed against No. 24 Bek on Friday in the flight one singles spot. Bek beat Rehberger in two sets 6-1, 6-4 and that gave Clemson a 3-1 lead over USF.
Bejlkova competed in singles action for the Bulls on Friday in her flight four singles match against No. 68 Ciolkowski. Bejlkova fell to Ciolkowski 6-3, 6-2 and that gave Clemson the fourth and final point they needed to pick up the win over USF.
Senior Natalia Guevara also competed in singles action for the Bulls in her flight six singles match against Balda. After dropping the first set 6-4 Guevara would come back and win the second set 6-4. In the tiebreaker set both players gave it their all but it would be Balda who would pick up the 1-0 (10-8) win in the tiebreaker set.
Vasenina closed things out for the Bulls in her flight three singles match against Hadziselimovic. Both players managed to keep things close in the first set and it would be Hadziselimovic who would pick up the first set 7-5. Hadziselimovic would go on to pick up the second set as well 6-4 which gave her the win over Vasenina.
With the loss the Bulls fall to 5-4 on the season. The Bulls will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Rockhill, South Carolina, to take on Winthrop University. The match is set to start at 2 p.m.
