SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The No. 39 Slippery Rock University women's tennis team earned a 6-1 home victory over Fairmont State University Sunday at the SRU Tennis Courts.
 
The Atlantic Region win improved nationally ranked Slippery Rock's record to 5-1 overall, while Fairmont State left SRU at 7-5 in 2025-26. Sunday's match served as The Rock's first contest at the SRU Tennis Courts this season. Slippery Rock is now 19-1 on its home court dating back to the 2021-22 season.
 
Sunday's match also featured a pair of individual historical milestones for Slippery Rock athletes as Amaia Balaguer Brau and Nicole Kempton both earned their 100th career victories at SRU.
 
Balaguer Brau and Kempton are the 17th and 18th athletes in program history to reach the 100-win milestone at SRU. They join teammates Tina Slovak and Dari Sakhanova as active 100-match winners at The Rock.
 
For the sixth time this season, Slippery Rock captured the team doubles point after sweeping all three flights from the Falcons.
 
Balaguer Brau and Slovak opened the afternoon on a high note for SRU by defeating Maria Fonseca and Stephanie Gopar 6-2 from the second flight followed by Kempton and Alissia Kivi – the No. 26 doubles team in the nation – clinching the doubles point with a 6-3 top flight win over Lara Smith and Hope Backx.
 
Sakhanova and Nadia Rodewald continued The Rock's winnings ways via a 6-1 showing over Alara Akgul and Laura Maciel out of the third flight.
 
All three of Slippery Rock's doubles pairings are sporting dominant records this season. Rodewald and Sakhanova are nearly perfect at 14-1, Kempton and Kivi hold a 13-8 mark while Slovak and Balaguer Brau have won nine of their 12 matches as a team in 2025-26.
 
Slippery Rock promptly rattled off four consecutive wins to open the singles portion or match en route to claiming the team decision.
 
Kivi recorded her 13th win in 16 matches this year by way of a 6-2, 6-0 win against Backx out of the second flight.
 
Balaguer Brau then bested Fonseca out of the first flight (6-3, 6-1). Sakhanova – the reigning Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Athlete of the Week – pushed Slippery Rock closer to the team win thanks to a 6-2, 6-2 fifth flight triumph over Maciel.  
 
Sunday's win improved Sakhanova's record to 10-4. She joins Kivi (13-3), Kempton (11-4) and Balaguer Brau (11-5) with double-digit singles victory totals on the year.
 
SRU officially locked down the team win when Rodewald stretched her personal winning streak to three matches by way of a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9) victory against Akgul from the sixth flight.
 
With the team victory already locked down, the match ended with FSU's Lara Smith edging Slovak in the fourth flight (6-3, 7-5) and Kempton downing Gopar in third flight competition 7-6, 6-4.
 
Slippery Rock returns to the court for a road match 4 p.m. Monday at Clarion in what will be SRU's PSAC West opener. The Rock and Golden Eagles were originally scheduled for a Wednesday showdown, but the match was moved up to Monday due to inclement weather in the forecast later in the week.





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