Dukes Trounce Richmond 6-1

Sunday, March 17

Richmond, Va.

1 p.m.

James Madison University

Richmond

3/17/2019 5:15:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. – Dominating doubles play and wins in five of six singles matches led James Madison women's tennis to a resounding 6-1 victory over Richmond at the Westhampton Tennis Courts on Sunday afternoon.

The result improved the Dukes dual season record to 8-6, while the Spiders fell to 5-6.

In doubles the Dukes grabbed the doubles point in a mere 22 minutes. The tandem of senior Abby Amos and freshman Daniela Voloh rolled past Richmond's team of Kiana Marshall and Lyndell Giffenig 6-0 at No. 1.

Minutes later senior Emma Petersen and freshman Daria Afanasyeva finished off a clean 6-1 dispatching of Lea Owens and Dessi Zlateva at No. 2.

At the No. 3 position, freshman Amanda Nord and junior Jona Roka completed the doubles sweep following a 6-2 victory over Ana Ramirez and Adrienne Haynes.

In singles, Petersen dropped the opening two games on court five, before reeling off wins in 12 consecutive games to race past Ramirez 6-2, 6-0, increasing the JMU lead to 2-0. The victory was
Petersen's 11th singles triumph of the spring and the 82nd of her career.

Voloh followed Petersen with a straight-set victory of her own, taking down Owens 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 to give the Dukes a 3-0 advantage.

Up 6-5 in the first-set, Afanasyeva broke Marshall's serve to take the opening set, before rolling 6-2 in the second to claim match point for JMU at 4-0 with three matches still on court.

With the match clinched, Roka and Nord claimed straight-set wins in quick succession to increase the score line to 6-0 in favor of JMU.

The lone point of the afternoon for Richmond came on court two. Amos dropped a back-and-forth three-set thriller to Zlateva. With Amos leading 5-2 in the first, Zlateva came back to win the final five games to take the set 7-5. In the second with Zlateva leading by a similar score of 5-1, Amos fought back to win five of the final six games, before claiming the tie-break 7-3.

Zlateva ended Amos' comeback bid, winning the third-set super-tiebreak 10-7 to close the afternoon and the 6-1 result.

DOUBLES CONTINUES TO BE PIVOTAL
JMU's victory improved their record to 7-0 this spring when claiming the doubles point to open a match and increasing their win-streak to 26 consecutive over the last two seasons.

FRESHMAN FUN
The freshmen trio of Nord, Voloh and Afanasyeva went a combined 6-0 on the afternoon, marking the fourth time this season the Dukes have had three freshmen finish a match unblemished.

UP NEXT
The Dukes will travel south to take on UNC Greensboro and Elon next Friday and Saturday. First serve is set for 2 p.m. on Friday at UNCG and for 11 a.m. on Saturday at Elon.