Results
 
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team maintained its perfect dual match record in the early stages of the 2023-24 season with a 5-2 Atlantic Region victory over Frostburg State University Friday night at the Oxford Athletic Club.
 
Friday's victory improves The Rock's record to 2-0 on the year while the Bobcats drop to 3-2. The win also marks the first time that SRU has started the dual match portion of its season with two straight wins since 2019-20.
 
Slippery Rock found itself playing from behind early in the match as Frostburg State earned the doubles decision with wins out of the first and third flights.
 
The Bobcats lone point of the match came when Julia Ramos and Lorena Pintar bested Amaia Balaguer Brau and Nicole Kempton while Maria Kotsiou and Patricia Castejon defeated Gabriela del Val del Toro and Nuria Martin Lopez.
 
While it had no impact on the overall team score, Slippery Rock did earn a victory in the second flight. Tina Slovak and Dari Sakhanova downed FSU's entry of Alyssa Kush and Lauren Ceballos for the paining's first win of 2023-24.
 
Any thoughts of a Bobcat upset were put to the rest in the singles portion of the night as Slippery Rock rattled off five straight victories to secure the team win.
 
Balaguer Brau, the No. 34 ranked singles athlete in Division II, pulled SRU even with FSU by way of a 6-1, 6-2 victory in first-flight competition over Ramos. Balaguer Brau has now won six of her first nine singles matches when representing The Rock, including a perfect 2-0 dual match record.
 
Playing in her first dual match of the season, del Val del Toro followed Balaguer Brau with a similar 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2 singles against Kush. The win also served as the 115th of del Val del Toro's Slippery Rock career. She is now tied with Lauren Coggins (2010-14) for the ninth-most total victories in program history (singles + doubles).
 
Martin Lopez was the next Rock athlete to tally a win courtesy of a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Kotsiou in the fourth flight.
 
Sakhanova then clinched Slippery Rock's team victory when she earned her second overall win of the match thanks to a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Pintar inside the third flight. For her career, Sakhanova is 16-8 when competing out of the third flight.
 
With the team victory already decided, the match concluded with SRU and FSU trading wins in the back portion of the singles lineup. Kempton earned a 6-1, 6-1 decision in the fifth flight against Ceballos before Castejon narrowly outlasted Georgie Lancaster from the sixth flight in the closest bout of the night 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 1-0 (7-5).
 
Kempton's victory continued a stellar start to the freshman's collegiate career as she is now 4-1 in singles play.
 
Slippery Rock will look to earn its first 3-0 start to a season since 2018 when it plays Division I Bowling Green State University 2 p.m. Saturday at the YSU Tennis Center in Youngstown, Ohio.




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