Colorado State University Athletics
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Tennis recap: Rams drop trip finale to Houston, 6-1
3/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 18, 2010
By Zak Gilbert
Athletic Media Relations
FULLERTON, Calif. – Melissa Holzinger won her third straight singles match and the Rams took the No. 1 doubles competition, but CSU couldn’t get points at key moments and fell, 6-1, to Houston Thursday at the Titan Courts.
The loss concludes a two-match, spring-break road trip for CSU (5-7, 0-0 Mountain West), which turned away host Cal State Fullerton, 5-2, Monday. Both matches were played at CSF’s home facility. Thursday also marked the Rams’ final non-conference dual before embarking on their MWC slate April 3.
“We’re practicing well, focusing very well, and day-to-day we’re improving, but we’re just not competing as well as we can as a team,” Head Coach Jon Messick said.
Holzinger, a junior from Dallas who transferred from Cleveland State, improved her dual-match record to 8-3, winning for the fourth time in her last five matches. In the No. 6 singles match, she defeated the Cougars’ Neila Starratt, 6-1, 6-3, to give the Rams their only point Thursday.
Another highlight for the Rams was a victory at the No. 1 doubles position by Laura Neal and Caitlin Fluegge, an 8-5 triumph over Houston’s Bryony Hunter and Alexandra Pickerill. The CSU teammates have won two of their last three matches, after dropping five straight from Feb. 19-27.
But other than Tori Arneson’s hard-fought, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 loss at No. 2 singles, Houston (8-4, 0-1 Conference USA) took every other match in straight sets Thursday, after sweeping the other two doubles competitions to take the doubles point.
CSU now turns its attention to the most important chapter of its season, the conference schedule.
“We’ve definitely learned a lot from non-conference,” Messick said, “but the main thing is we have to start competing better. We’re playing at a pretty good level, but we’re not winning points when we need them. We need to get better at that. The potential is there for this team to do well in our conference schedule.”
Thursday’s results
Singles
No. 1: Bryony Hunter (UH) def. Laura Neal (CSU), 6-3, 6-4
No. 2: Joanna Kacprzyk (UH) def. Tori Arneson (CSU), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
No. 3: Elena Kazakova (UH) def. Caitlin Fluegge (CSU), 7-5, 6-4
No. 4: Laura Ring (UH) def. Veronika Wojakowska (CSU), 6-2, 6-0
No. 5: Maja Kazimieruk (UH) def. Lauren Mulhern (CSU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 6: Melissa Holzinger (CSU) def. Neila Starratt (UH), 6-1, 6-3
Doubles
No. 1: Neal/Fluegge (CSU) def. Hunter/Pickerill (UH), 8-5
No. 2: Kazakova/Ring (UH) def. Arneson/Holzinger (CSU), 8-5
No. 3: Kacprzyk/Kazimieruk (UH) def. Mulhern/Wojakowska (CSU), 8-5
Players Mentioned
