It appears home is still where the heart is for the Boston University women’s tennis team.
BU (6-4) defeated Florida Atlantic University (0-9) last Friday, 7-0, in Miami, Fla. salvaging an otherwise disappointing Spring Break road trip for their first road win of the year.
The Terriers opened their trip by losing, 6-1, to No. 41 Florida International University (4-6) last Tuesday before dropping a tightly-contested 4-3 decision to red-hot Temple University (10-2) last Thursday in Boca Raton, Fla.
Florida International was the first nationally ranked team BU faced all season.
“We knew we would have to play our best to beat [FIU],” said BU coach Lesley Sheehan. “Although they are ranked higher than we are, it was a little disappointing that it was 6-1.”
Against Florida International, the Terriers picked up just one win, with junior Cori Lefkowith over FIU sophomore Pricilla Castilla in straight sets, 6-1 and 6-4.
Outside of Lefkowith’s victory, no Terrier could extend her match past two sets. FIU freshman sensation Liset Brito, ranked No. 88 in the country, defeated sophomore Francine Whu in No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-1. The No. 20 doubles combination of Brito and senior Egle Petrauskaite routed Whu and freshman Vanessa Steiner, 8-1, in first doubles.
Whu and Steiner recovered against Temple, defeating freshmen Lucie Pazderova and Theresa Stangl in No. 1 doubles, 8-5. Unfortunately, Temple took the remaining two doubles matches for the doubles point.
“The biggest disappointment for the team really came from Temple,” Sheehan said. “We lost 4-3 with the match at three-all coming down to the very last match on the court. If we played better doubles, we would have won that match.”
Steiner also picked up a singles victory by beating sophomore Christine Clermont in straight sets, 7-5 and 6-3. Lefkowith continued her strong singles play by ousting sophomore Anastasiia Rukavyshnykova, 6-4, before Rukavyshnykova retired.
Sophomore Liz Corrao won the most hotly-contested match of the day, besting freshman Josephine Bergman in No. 5 singles, 2-6, 7-5 and 6-1.
Temple closed out the Terriers by winning the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6 singles matches. Overall, BU took three singles and one doubles match against Temple.
FAU proved to be a completely different story for the Terriers, who bounced back from their second two-game losing streak of the season. FAU was in search of its first victory of the season, but instead lost its ninth straight. BU won every singles match and two of the three doubles matches, marking the second time the Terriers have blanked their opponent this season.
Lefkowith won her third match of the week, defeating junior Danielle Simone, 6-0 and 6-3. Lefkowith, Steiner, Corrao and junior Danielle Abraham each picked up straight-set victories in singles play.
“Cori had a great week,” Sheehan said. “She’s got a game that a lot of people are not used to. It’s a very mixed up type of game and it really bothers a lot of people because they’re not used to it.”
Lefkowith continued her strong week, teaming up with Abraham to defeat Simone and senior Elodie Wendling, 8-4, in No. 2 doubles.
The lone defeat of the day came in No. 1 doubles play, where Whu and Steiner dropped their second match of the week against senior Claudia Kecht and sophomore Natalia Totevska.