Results
 
WEXFORD, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team returned to its winning ways with a 6-1 victory over Ashland University Friday night at the Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
 
The non-conference win improves The Rock's record to 3-2 on the season while the visiting Eagles drop to 6-3 in 2023-24. SRU is now a perfect 2-0 against fellow Division II competition this year and 3-0 when playing on Friday nights.
 
Slippery Rock earned the team win by overcoming Ashland taking the doubles point with six consecutive singles victories.
 
The night opened with SRU and AU trading 6-2 doubles decisions out of the top two positions.
 
Ashland claimed a win from the second flight as Constanza Arancibia and Ana Penteado bested Gabriela del Val del Toro and Nuria Martin Lopez only for The Rock's top pairing of Amaia Balaguer Brau and Nicole Kempton to avenge their teammates defeat with a victory of their own over Kortney Reed and Anna Corbel.
 
The Eagles went on to earn the first team point of the evening by way of a 6-3 third-flight victory by Luciana Ottoni and Claudia Adcock against Georgie Lancaster and Dari Sakhanova.
 
However, any thoughts of an Ashland road victory were quickly put to rest in the singles portion of Friday's match. SRU swept the singles flights to polish off a comeback win.
 
Kempton ignited The Rock's rally efforts when the talented rookie recorded a 6-0, 6-0 shutout out of the fifth flight against Ottoni. In addition to tying match score, Kempton's victory also improved her personal record on the year to 6-2.
 
The top half of Slippery Rock's singles lineup proceeded to make it a 3-1 match. del Val del Toro posted the go-ahead result via a 6-1, 6-1 triumph out of the second flight against Penteado followed by No. 34 Balaguer Brau downing Adcock 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1 singles.
 
Both Balaguer Brau and del Val del Toro have now recorded seven singles win this year.
 
Martin Lopez clinched the team win, and improved her personal tally to 5-4 in 2023-24, courtesy of a solid 6-1, 6-4 fourth-flight victory against Reed.
 
While they had no bearing on the team result, the night ended with Slippery Rock also taking victories in the third and sixth flights, respectively, with Sakhanova registering a 6-2, 6-2 win against Arancibia and Tina Slovak pulling off a 5-7, 7-6 (7-0), 1-0 (7-3) comeback victory against Corbel.
 
Slovak is now 4-1 in limited singles appearances this season, including a perfect 2-0 mark in dual match play.
 
Slippery Rock returns to action when it heads to Florida for its annual spring break trip March 11-15 where it will play four matches over five days against Augustana, Sioux Falls, Texas A&M Kingsville and Angelo State.





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