ORANGE, Calif. – Dominican women's tennis earned its first road victory of a Southern California trip as it came back from an early deficit to claim the 6-3 victory Tuesday night over Chapman University at Lastinger Tennis Center.
The Penguins (3-4) claimed the first victory of the match as
Alex Wartenberg and
Michelle Li topped Naomi Li and Anna Kaplan 8-1 in No. 3 doubles. The Panthers (1-4) responded with an 8-1 victory of their own on the top court by Alisa Ogranovich and Madison Ross. Dominican's
Ofelia Lopez Camarena and
Kaitlyn Nguyen were locked in a tight battle for the rubber match in doubles with Vasilia Trofimova and Nicole Fouts, but Trofimova and Fouts held the Penguins' duo off for the 8-5 victory.Â
Ogranovich kept the momentum rolling for Chapman into singles with the 6-0, 6-3 victory on the top court to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead in the match.
Taylor Lim turned the tide for Dominican as she claimed No. 2 singles 6-3, 6-2 to close the gap back to one moments later. Wartenberg then added her second victory of the day with a commanding 6-1 victory in the first set before holding off Ross in the second set for a 7-5 win to tie the team score at 3-3.
Michelle Li followed her double partner with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in No. 5 singles to put Dominican within one singles victory of the team win. The final two matches of the day were tightly contested. Nguyen started strong, dispatching Kaplan 6-1, but Kaplan responded with a strong second set as the two traded games to a 6-6 tie in the set. The tiebreaker was equally close, but Nguyen edged Kaplan 7-5 to seal the victory for the Penguins.
Dominican's
Nicole Bermudez and Chapman's Delara Fotovatjah faced off in the final match of the night as Fotovatjah held off Bermudez for the 6-4 victory in the first set. Bermudez answered with a 6-4 victory of her own in the second set to send the match into a tiebreaker set. Bermudez rolled with the momentum to a 10-5 win to claim the match for the Penguins.
Dominican will return to the court Wednesday as they face Biola University at 2 p.m. PDT at the BIola Tennis Center in La Mirada. Live stats and video will be available online.
