Results
GREENBURG, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team's season came to an end Saturday following a 4-2 loss to No. 49 Indiana University (Pa.) in the Round of 32 of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Due to inclement weather throughout the weekend, Saturday's match between The Rock and Crimson Hawks was held indoors at the Greensburg Racquet Club in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
With the loss, Slippery Rock concludes its year with an overall record of 15-8, marking the program's seventh consecutive winning season.
Slippery Rock has also now made 20 NCAA Tournament appearance overall and 19 trips to the national tournament under head coach
Matt Meredith. SRU has won at least one NCAA Tournament match in each of the last three years.
Saturday's contest was an evenly matched bout between arguably the top two programs in the Atlantic Region with nearly every singles flight being tightly contested.
IUP, which is now 16-8 overall on the year, picked up the crucial doubles point by taking wins in the second and third flights.
The second flight contest saw Katy Graydon and Lydia Vlachou defeat
Nuria Martin Lopez and
Gabriela del Val del Toro, 6-2. In the third flight, Hannah Beitat and Veronica Sirci took a 6-3 decision against
Dari Sakhanova and
Tina Slovak
Once the doubles point was decided, the first flight match between The Rock's
Amaia Balaguer Brau /
Nicole Kempton and IUP's Ming Deewajee / Dani Ramos was halted with Indiana holding a slight 5-4 lead.
Slippery Rock's singles wins came out of the first and third flights where Balaguer Brau beat Deewajee (7-5, 4-6, 6-2) and Kempton bettered Ramos (6-3, 6-4), respectively.
Balaguer Brau, a transfer from St. Thomas Aquinas, and Kempton, a true freshman, both wrapped strong inaugural seasons at The Rock.
Balaguer Brau finished the season on a nine-match winning streak and with an 19-9 overall record that includes a 15-5 showing in singles matches. Kempton meanwhile turns the page on a rookie year in which she went 15-7 overall.
The Crimson Hawks punched their tickets to the Round of 16 via wins from the fourth, fifth and sixth flights.
Vlachou claimed a 6-2, 6-1 against Sakhanova from the fourth flight with Sirci defeating Slovak (7-6 (7-4), 6-3) and Beitat edging Martin Lopez (6-2, 2-6, 6-2) in a pair of tremendously close decisions.
del Val del Toro's second flight match against Graydon was halted once IUP earned the match-deciding point. The bout was in the third set after the two traded 6-3 wins.
Saturday's match was the final in the collegiate careers of Martin Lopez and del Val del Toro: both of whom enjoyed great success at The Rock.
Martin Lopez won an impressive 63.2 percent of her singles and doubles matches (91 of 144) over her Slippery Rock career and del Val del Toro leaves SRU as the program's fifth winningest athlete all-time with 141 career victories.
While The Rock will lose Martin Lopez and del Val del Toro to graduation, the future of the program still figures to be bright as SRU returns every other member of the program for the 2025 campaign.
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