Harrogate, TN – The Lincoln Memorial University Women's Tennis team finished their first four home games in perfect style, defeating Belmont Abbey 4-0 on Saturday night to improve to 4-0 on the season.
The Splitters started the sweep by taking the doubles point, as LMU took two of three from the Crusaders. In the second doubles pairing, the duo of Adriana Pellizzari and Natalia Reimer dominated the pairing from Belmont Abbey, not losing a single point to their opponents as the two cruised to a 6-0 win, evening the doubles matches at 1-1.
Marta Melnichenok and Lucie Palud would take the rubber match for the Splitters in doubles play, giving LMU the point thanks to a 6-3 win in the third pairing.
In the singles pool, Melnichenok turned around and dominated out of the first draw, taking down Belmont Abbey's #1 singles player 6-1 and 6-3 to earn the Splitters a clean-sets victory.
From the fifth draw, Alexandra Ortiz allowed just a single point to her opponent, going for a 6-0 win in the opening round before rounding out the match with a 6-1 victory over her opponent. Mia Rodriguez would close out the win for LMU, going 6-0 in both sets to take the sixth singles draw cleanly over her opponent, as LMU secured the 4-0 shutout.
When the match finished, the Splitters held leads in all singles matches as well. Rosalie Carrier-Dulac led the second position after taking the first set 6-4, Pellizzari led in the third set 6-2 after one, while ahead 4-1 in the second set. Reimer was set to finish things for LMU in the fourth draw, leading after a 6-2 set win and ahead 3-2 in the next set.
LMU hits the road on Tuesday to take on Converse University at 3:00 p.m. in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
RESULTS
Doubles:
#1: Maria Villanueva/Mia Rodriguez vs Hanley Riner/MacKenzie McCarthy: 3-6
#2: Adriana Pellizzari/Natalia Reimer vs Leilany Sanchez/Kaitlin Nguyen: 6-0
#3: Marta Melnichenok/Lucie Palud vs Alexis Burkhalter/Alexandra Wright: 6-3
Singles:
#1: Marta Melnichenok vs Kaitlin Nguyen: 6-1, 6-3
#2: Rosalie Carrier-Dulac vs Alexis Burkhalter: 6-1, UF
#3: Adriana Pellizzari vs MacKenzie McCarthy: 6-2, UF
#4: Natalia Reimer vs Hanley Riner: 6-2, UF
#5: Alexandra Ortiz vs Leilany Sanchez: 6-0, 6-1
#6: Mia Rodriguez vs Charlotte Bergman: 6-0, 6-0
