WKU Tennis played a doubleheader Sunday at the Michael O. Buchanon Park, winning 4-3 against the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and winning 7-0 against Tennessee State, improving to 8-3 on the year.

University of Tennessee Chattanooga 

The Lady Toppers started off the day by winning the doubles point. WKU lost at the No. 2 position before bouncing back with a win from the No. 3 duo of freshman Sofia Blanco and sophomore Samantha Martinez, winning 6-4. The No. 1 pair of redshirt sophomore Paola Cortez and redshirt junior Cora-Lynn von Dungern finished the doubles matches with a 6-3 win. 

In singles play, UT Chattanooga won at the No. 4 spot, tying the score at 1-1. On court two, redshirt senior Laura Bernardos put the Lady Toppers back in the lead, winning 6-3 and 6-1. The Mocs tied the score again, 2-2 after winning at the No. 5 spot. 

Cortez won 6-1, 4-6, and 6-4 at the No. 3 spot, putting WKU in the lead 3-2. Von Dungern won her matches 6-3, 2-6, and 6-4 at the No. 1 spot, giving the Lady Toppers the victory. The final match was played out, going in favor of the Mocs, ending the day with a final score of 4-3.

“What a great college tennis match,” WKU head coach Greg Davis said in a press release. “We had to fight very hard against a really good UT Chattanooga team. It is really rare to get three wins at one, two and three to win a match. Those are the three toughest opponents you are going up against. For us to pull this out and win at the top three positions while being down in the third in two of those matches, it was a great effort by the team.”

Tennessee State 

WKU Tennis secured the doubles point for the third-straight match. There were only two doubles matches played and WKU received the victory at the No. 3 spot by default. The No. 2 pair of Bernardos and freshman Rachel Hermanova clinched their match, winning 6-0 and giving WKU the early advantage. 

The Lady Toppers picked up another victory due to Blanco winning at the No. 6 spot by default. Redshirt sophomores Taylor Shaw and Alexis Cramer claimed victory at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots and the overall match with both winning 6-0.

The rest of the matches were played out, despite WKU already claiming victory. The matches all went in favor of the Lady Toppers with Bernardos winning 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 1 spot before Cortez won 6-0 and 6-1 at the No. 2 spot and Hermanova winning 6-0 and 7-6 (1) at the No. 3 spot, giving WKU the 7-0 sweep. 

“We played well in our second match of the day,” Davis said. “Today, we played well in both matches. The second match is always where conditioning comes into play, and we passed the test. The team is very happy to be 8-3, but we know we have a challenge ahead of us this week with three tough opponents Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

WKU Tennis has a full weekend of matches coming up at the Michael O. Buchanon Park with matchups against Austin Peay on Friday, SIU Edwardsville on Saturday and Belmont on Sunday.

Sports Reporter Izzy Lanuza can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @izzylanuza.