Results

ERIE, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's team lost a close back-and-forth match to Bucknell University, 4-3, Saturday at the Westwood Racquet Club in Erie, Pennsylvania.
 
Saturday's contest was the latest in a string of close matches against strong competition for Slippery Rock (1-3). All four of its matches this year have been decided by 4-3 decisions and of its four opponents, three have been Division I schools with the fourth being Carnegie Mellon University: a top team in Division III.
 
Slippery Rock lost the doubles point for the first time this season and had its comeback in the singles portion match fall just short as Bucknell (3-4) eked out the team victory thanks to a tight three-set victory out of the No. 1 singles flight in the final point of the night.
 
The match started out strong for The Rock as their No. 2 doubles team of Tina Slovak and Amaia Balaguer Brau earned a 6-2 win over Jaycie Mair and Cameron King. Balaguer Brau and Slovak exit the weekend with a 4-0 record on the year.
 
The Bison responded with wins out of the first and third flights to grab the first awarded team point of the night.
 
Whitney King and Abby Platt narrowly bettered Alissia Kivi and Nicole Kempton, 6-4, followed by Riley Jennings and Anna Lajos getting the better of Dari Sakhanova and Georgie Lancaster in a 6-3 decision.
 
Undeterred by the setback in doubles, Slippery Rock regrouped by taking three of the first four completed singles matches to push Bucknell to the brink.
 
Slovak and Kempton opened the rally with wins from the fourth and third flights as Slovak downed Tori Allen (6-1, 6-1) and Kempton bested Lajos (6-4, 6-3). Saturday was the continuation of a great start to the 2025 season for Slovak, who is now a perfect 3-0 in dual matches.
 
Following a 6-1, 6-0 win by Mair against Sakhanova in fifth-flight competition, Kivi posted a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Platt out of the second flight to even the match at 3-3. One of the top freshmen in the region, Kivi has now won eight of her first 12 collegiate singles bouts.
 
However, Slippery Rock's comeback bid ended there as the Bison were able to stave off an upset-minded SRU squad with matching-clinching wins from the sixth and first flights.
 
C. King would pull Bucknell even with SRU by way of a 6-4, 6-2 sixth-flight win over Lancaster with W. King taking a three-set thriller over Balaguer Brau out of the top flight 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to close out the victory.
 
Slippery Rock returns to competition 5 p.m. March 2 with a non-conference Atlantic Region match against Salem University.




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