Results
 
WEXFORD, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team opened the spring portion of the 2025-26 season with a 7-0 shutout of Frostburg State University Saturday at the Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
 
The season-opening win improves The Rock's record to 1-0. FSU falls to 2-4 following the Atlantic Region setback.
 
While Frostburg State did take the opening doubles match of the evening with a 6-3 victory in the top flight by Julia Ramos Bentham and Alyssa Kush over Nicole Kempton and Alissia Kivi, SRU captured victories from the second and third flights to register the team point.
 
Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak bettered Patricia Castejon and Ximena Ku in second-flight competition, 6-2, while Dari Sakhanova and Nadia Rodewald officially locked up the first awarded point of the match via a 6-4 third-flight triumph over Ella Troxell and Claudia Coombes.
 
Rodewald and Sakhanova are now 9-1 as a team in 2025-26. Slovak and Balaguer Brau are also nearly perfect at 6-1.
 
In singles competition, the top half of The Rock's lineup cruised to wins. Kivi posted a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Ku in the second flight. She was sandwiched around nearly identical victories from Balaguer Brau in the top flight against Ramos Bentham (6-1, 6-1) and Kempton's 6-1, 6-0 third flight showing versus Castejon.
 
Playing in her first dual match as part of the Slippery Rock program, Rodewald downed Coombes in the sixth flight in the form of a 6-0, 6-3 victory.
 
Rounding out SRU's singles success was Sakhanova's fifth flight win against Troxell (6-3, 6-2) and Slovak, who outlasted Kush in the fourth flight 6-2, 4-6, 11-9.  
 
Counting Saturday's results, Kivi – the 46th-ranked singles athlete in Division II - is now 10-1 through the early stages of the 2025-26 season. Kempton (8-2) and Balaguer Brau (8-3) are tied for the second on the team in singles wins, while Sakhanova is 6-3.
 
Balaguer Brau is just five wins away from becoming the 17th athlete in program history to record 100 career wins. Kempton is close behind her teammate in joining the elite group with 94 wins at The Rock.
 
Slippery Rock continues non-conference competition 8 p.m. Feb. 20 against Tiffin University at the PA Tennis Academy in Wexford, Pennsylvania.





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