Women’s tennis drops two straight on the road

 The women's tennis team fell to Marquette 7-0 in Milwaukee on Jan. 22. The Golden Eagles outplayed the Wildcats throughout the matchup, beginning by beating 'Nova in three out of three doubles matches. 

Senior Carla Erskine and sophomore Allison Solberg lost 8-1 against the Marquette duo of sophomore Rachael Hush and junior Christina Ruiz. 

Senior Courtney Reed and junior Emily Urda were able to get the most points for Villanova in any doubles game played that day, but still fell 8-2 to Marquette's Kelly Barry and Olga Fischer. 

The final Wildcat pair of freshman Wesleigh Donadio and sophomore Michele Jordan were also defeated by a Golden Eagle duo. They were unable to score a point and lost 8-0 to senior Maggie Wilson and sophomore Gillian Hush. 

Marquette continued to dominate the match during singles play, winning all six individual games.  Erskine was defeated 6-1, 6-2 by Fischer, while Reed was shut out 6-0, 6-0 by Barry. Sophomore Allie Harding also went without scoring a point against Marquette's Hush. 

'Nova continued to have a hard time on the court when Solberg was outplayed 6-1, 6-2 by Ruiz, sophomore Liz Spellman was downed 6-0, 6-1 by Wilson and Jordan was dominated by Marquette senior Elly Strother 6-1, 6-0.

Villanova also had trouble in Chicago when they faced off against conference rival DePaul on Saturday. Their inability to win games continued when, once again, the Wildcats were dominated in both doubles and singles play, losing 7-0. 

The Blue Demons only allowed the 'Cats three collective points during doubles play. Erskine and Solberg were able to score the most points for 'Nova, but were still defeated 8-2 by DePaul senior Anna Redecsi and junior Selma Slakovic. 

The Wildcat duo of Reed and Urda was also able to score, though only once. Their 8-1 loss to senior Sandra Zmak and senior Kristen Gambrell was followed by Donadio and freshman Sarah Kelly's 8-0 fall to sophomores Cali Gustafson and Gia McKnight.

The Blue Devils did not let up on the Wildcats during the singles matches, winning every game played. Both Reed and Erskine were shutout 6-0, 6-0 by Slakovic and junior Katarina Milinkovic, respectively. 

Solberg faced a similar fate when she was defeated 6-2, 6-2 by McKnight. Solberg's fellow 'Cat, Harding, managed to score one point against Zmak and finished the game 6-0, 6-1. 

Next up for 'Nova was Spellman who was unable to get on the board in her game against Gambrell. Following Spellman's 6-0, 6-0 loss was Jordan who had to play Gustafson. Jordan was outplayed in the last singles game 6-1, 6-0.

The women's tennis team will certainly have time to regroup after these two difficult losses. They don't resume play for nearly a month when they travel to Hamden, Conn. to take on Quinnipiac on Feb. 22.