Story by Connor Smith/ Contributing Writer
The MTSU women’s tennis team has an excellent mixture of underclassmen and veterans, making them a dangerous team to face. MTSU opened their fourth tournament of the season this Friday with yet another solid start to the season.
The Blue Raiders had three sessions of matches starting with singles against Western Kentucky and North Alabama, followed by doubles against UTC and Western Kentucky, and ending the day with doubles against Bellarmine and Western Kentucky.
The Blue Raiders took three wins from North Alabama including a 7-6, 5-7, 10-7 victory from Muskan Gupta to continue her winning streak. It was a huge day for incoming freshman star Karen Yibirin as she picked up her first career singles win over Nicole Reilly (UNA) 6-3, 6-4.
In the 3:30 doubles session, MTSU lost to WKU as Cara Szilasi and Yibirin were shut out 0-6 by Sofia Blanco and Samantha Martinez. Following the loss, MTSU locked in and took care of UTC, taking two out of three against the Mocs.
Once again in the second session of doubles, the Blue Raiders split their four matches winning two. The Blue Raiders finished their matches against WKU on a winless 0-7 day against the Hilltoppers.
MTSU took two of three matches from Bellarmine, including a dominating 6-1 win from Sana Garakani and Lilly-Sophie Schmidt giving the Blue Raiders an overall record of 6-10 during the first day of the tournament.
“We had a solid day of competition,” said Bailey-Duvall. “I liked what I saw in the doubles.”
