Women's Tennis Falls to Seton Hall in First Spring Break Match

Monday, March 11

Orlando, Fla. / USTA National Campus

3 p.m.

Bucknell University

Seton Hall

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Women's Tennis Falls to Seton Hall in First Spring Break Match

3/11/2019 9:14:00 PM | Women's Tennis

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Bucknell women's tennis team tasted defeat for the first time in 2019 on Monday, falling 7-0 to Seton Hall at the USTA National Campus. The Bison are now 8-1 on the season, and they saw their longest winning streak to start a season since 2004 come to an end.

Bucknell was close to picking up the doubles point after the No. 3 tandem of Mishi Papish and Jill Auteri clipped the Dutch duo of Melody Taal and Anniek Jansen in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-4). That evened the doubles series at one match apiece, but the Pirates claimed the point at No. 2 doubles, where Thandy Kangwa and Minja Gligic clipped Sofia Ayuso and Daniela Bellini, 7-5.

Auteri and Papich improved to 9-3 on the season, including 7-1 in spring dual competitions.

Seton Hall then took all six singles matches, with the closest coming on Court 5, where Ayuso dropped the first set to Gligic 6-2, but then bounced back for a 6-2 verdict of her own in set two. Gligic prevailed 10-5 in a third-set tiebreak. Ayuso is now 18-6 on the season and 7-1 at No. 5 singles.

"I thought we played okay," said head coach Rebecca Helt. "Seton Hall is a good team, but we definitely should have been able to put a few points on the board. We needed to do a better job of finishing our points and closing out deuce games. I expect each day to get a little better down here."

Seton Hall improved to 7-4 on the season, including a 5-2 win at Navy on March 2.

This was the first of four matches for the Bison at the USTA facility during Spring Break. Bucknell will take on Howard and Northern Illinois on Wednesday before finishing up the week against Western Carolina on Friday.

DOUBLES:
1. Regina Pitts/Annika Fajnarova (SH) def. Cayla Koch/Paige Leavy -- 6-2
2. Thandy Kangwa/Minja Gligic (SH) def. Sofia Ayuso/Daniela Bellini -- 7-5
3. Mishi Papich/Jill Auteri (B) def. Melody Taal/Anniek Jansen -- 7-6 (7-4)
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2*

SINGLES:
1. Fajnarova (SH) def. Bellini -- 6-4, 6-3
2. Pitts (SH) def. Koch -- 6-4, 6-1
3. Taal (SH) def. Leavy -- 6-3, 6-1
4. Michal Matson (SH) def. Papich -- 7-6, 6-1
5. Gligic (SH) def. Ayuso -- 6-2, 2-6, 10-5
6. Mekeila Erspamer (SH) def. Auteri -- 6-1, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 3, 2*, 4, 1, 5