Senior Stephanie Quan won her first No. 4 singles match of the season against the Western New Mexico Mustangs on Monday, March 10. Photo credit: Steven Mercado
The Azusa Pacific women’s tennis team made easy work of the winless Western New Mexico Mustangs (0-10) and only lost one set on Monday’s 8-1 win.
To start the day, freshman Natalie Johnson and junior Bethany Duval quickly defeated freshman Marissa Aguirre and sophomore Claudia Osuna, 8-0. Senior Kim Koetterheinrich and sophomore Lindsey Yeom followed with an 8-2 victory over sophomore Diamond Morrill and senior Dena Irvin.
The Cougars’ only loss was also the longest set of the match. The No. 20-ranked pair of senior Emily Harris and junior Danae Ingwaldson fell 9-7 in a closely contended battle with junior Ganna Tiurina and junior Marie Monier.
Following Azusa Pacific’s lone loss of the match, the school swept singles play with no Mustang winning any more than three games in a set aside from Tiurina winning five games in the first against No. 25-ranked Harris at No. 1.
Johnson defeated Monier 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles for her 11th victory of the season. Ingwaldson beat Osuna 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3 and senior Stephanie Quan played at No. 4 singles for the first time this season, defeating Morrill 6-2, 6-2.
Koetterheinrich played at No. 5 singles for the second time this season and defeated Irvin without allowing her to win a game: 6-0, 6-0. Duval almost did the same, only losing one game to Aguirre in her 6-1, 6-0 victory.
The Cougars (10-4) will finally get a break after capping their five-game, seven-day stretch with a win. They will hit the road for the first time since Feb. 17, playing their next match Friday, March 21 against Tufts (Mass.) at Claremont. The match is set to start at 3 p.m.