Dukes Battle Past UT Arlington in Tight 4-3 Decision

Friday, March 8

Boca Raton, Fla.

11 a.m.

James Madison University

UT Arlington

3/8/2019 4:04:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Crucial victories in doubles play, along with two three-set triumphs in singles action, led James Madison women's tennis to a hard-fought 4-3 victory over UT Arlington on Friday morning at Patch Reef Park.

The victory improved JMU's mark to 6-5 this spring, while the Mavericks fell to 9-3.

In doubles, the two sides split sets on courts 1 and 2. UTA took the early doubles lead, with a 6-4 win at No. 1, just before the Dukes knotted the score with a 6-3 triumph from the duo of freshman Daniela Voloh and junior Jona Roka at No. 2.

The tandem of senior Emma Petersen and freshman Amanda Nord clinched the doubles point and JMU's 1-0 lead with a 6-4 victory at No. 3 over Almudena Boza and Carla Vives.

In singles play, senior Abby Amos dominated Carla Pons in straight sets, dropping just a single game in her 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 2, to increase the JMU lead to 2-0.

With JMU in complete control, UTA's Lucia Natal bounced back from a first-set defeat to take down Voloh in three-sets 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 to cut the JMU lead to 2-1.

On court 5, Petersen fell in a back-and-forth first set 7-6(0) and was unable to recover as UTA's Liz Chileno took her down 6-2 in the second to claim a straight-set victory that knotted the score at 2-2.

At No. 6, Nord outlasted Boza 11-9 in a marathon third-set tiebreaker to claim her second victory of the spring and a massive 3-2 lead for JMU with two matches still on court.

With the Dukes on the cusp of clinching the match, freshman Daria Afanasyeva dropped the first set to Momoka Horiguchi at No. 1, but recovered to roll in the final two sets 6-4, 6-3 to clinch match point for JMU at 4-2.

Roka fell at No. 4 in three-sets 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 to Nanaka Takeuchi to close the match and the 4-3 decision.

NORD KNOWS BEST
Nord was the lone Duke to claim victories in both singles and doubles. Her doubles triumph clinched a crucial doubles point for JMU, while her come-from-behind victory in the third-set to force a tie-break and claim that tie-break 11-9 came at a key point in the match to allow the Dukes to regain a one point advantage late.

DOUBLE DUTY
JMU clinched the doubles point for just the fifth time this spring. In those matches JMU is a perfect 5-0, with a 1-5 mark when dropping the doubles decision, with the lone win coming against Charlotte.

WHEN ABBY WINS, SO DO THE DUKES
Amos' straight-set triumph at No. 2 was her seventh victory of the spring. In those seven matches JMU sits with a stellar mark of 6-1 with the only loss coming against ECU.

QUOTING HEAD COACH SHELLEY JAUDON
"This was a really good match for our team. We've been talking a lot and working towards matches where we play together as a team and take the match when it's on our racket. We did just that today and saw different people come through with the match on the line which was rewarding for the girls."

UP NEXT
The Dukes will take on FIU in Miami tomorrow afternoon looking for consecutive victories for just the second time this season. First serve is set for noon.