Harrogate, TN – The Lincoln Memorial University Women's Tennis team opened the 2026 spring season in the win column, with the Railsplitters dominating their Sunday match against King University 6-1.  

Lincoln Memorial opened with a sweep in doubles play, as the Splitters earned the matches doubles point with ease. In the first doubles pairing, the combination of Mia Rodriguez and Alexandra Ortiz fell behind early 0-2, but pulled away by scoring six of the next eight, securing the 6-4 win.  

In the second doubles pair, Adriana Pellizzari and Natalia Reimer dominated for the Splitters, taking the set 6-1 after jumping out to a 4-0 lead, securing the doubles point for Lincoln Memorial. LMU put the exclamation point on the doubles point with a 6-2 victory by Marta Melnichenok and Lucie Palud, as the duo was able to dominate the entire match, taking a 5-1 lead before finishing off the win.  

In singles play, the Splitters carried all but one match vs the Tornado, with their sole loss going into a third-set tiebreaker. Carla Ramonet would battle in her first set of the number two singles position, taking her competition to an even 3-3 score before pulling away late, taking the first set 6-4 before running away with set two 6-2 for a clean sweep.  

Pellizzari dominated out of the third-singles position to the tune of a straight sets win, going 6-2 in the first and 6-0 in the second for the win. The fourth singles set would see the last test for the Splitters from King, as Natalia Reimer would see an early back and forth battle in the first set, eventually taking a 2-2 draw to a 6-3 win before taking all six points in the second set. 

The Railsplitters would finish their win by dropping just one point over the final four sets, with Ortiz winning 6-1 and 6-0 in the five spot before Rodriguez took a clean sweep in the sixth singles seed to secure the 6-1 Lincoln Memorial win.  

The Railsplitters will next face competition next weekend, with LMU squaring off against Johnson University on Friday and Young Harris on Saturday.  

RESULTS 

Doubles 

#1: Alexandra Ortiz/Mia Rodriguez vs Deniz Aytun/Shelby Tranchita: 6-4 

#2: Adriana Pellizzari/Natalia Reimer vs Trinity Moore/Ruth Robison: 6-1 

#3: Marta Melnichenok/Lucie Palud vs Sarah Hale/Rani Malhoe: 6-2 

Singles 

#1: Marta Melnichenok vs Deniz Aytun: 6-3, 3-6, 0-1 (10-0) 

#2: Carla Ramonet vs Shelby Tranchita: 6-4, 6-2 

#3: Adriana Pellizzari vs Deniz Malhoe: 6-2, 6-0 

#4: Natalia Reimer vs Trinity Moore: 6-3, 6-0 

#5: Alexandra Ortiz vs Ruth Robison: 6-1, 6-0 

#6: Mia Rodriguez vs Lilly Belcher: 6-0, 6-0