The women's tennis team was back on the road over Easter break after closing out its season at home April 5. The team traveled south to Alabama for its last two matches of the regular season.
On Friday the Golden Eagles took on No. 26 Alabama, the last of 11 ranked opponents the team faced this season.
The Crimson Tide was too much for the Golden Eagles and took the match. However, Marquette would not let them get away with it all and were able to secure two points in the loss.
Alabama came out strong and took the doubles point. At the No. 1 spot senior Veronica Garcia Briseno and freshman Callan Smith fell, 8-2, to Robin Stephenson and Nathalie Koppelle. The match in the No. 2 spot ended the same way for senior duo Genevieve Charron and Annabelle Espinosa, who fell, 8-2, to Ashley Bentley and Melissa Minor. Third doubles was not played and went to Marquette by default.
Going into singles ahead a point, the Tide continued to challenge the Golden Eagles. First singles was the first to finish and saw Garcia Briseno fall, 6-1, 6-2, to No. 44 Stephenson. Smith was the next to finish in the No. 3 spot. She was unable to get past her Alabama competition and fell, 6-1, 6-0, to Koppelle.
Charron faced the other ranked player from Alabama in the No. 2 spot. Bentley, ranked No. 77, took the match, 6-1, 6-2. The loss secured the fourth point for the Tide, giving them enough points to win the match as a team.
Freshman Dominika Dabrowski finished next at the No. 5 spot. The match was close; however, Alabama once again came out ahead. Sonja Nikolic took the match 6-4, 7-5.
Espinosa rounded out the match in the No. 4 spot with Marquette's only win. The senior took the first set easily, 6-2. Although the second set was more of a challenge, Espinosa came out on top following a tiebreaker, 7-5 (3).
On Easter Sunday the team celebrated with a win, as it took down Alabama-Birmingham, 5-1, closing out the season with a win. The win was the team's sixth of the season and brought its conference record to 2-1.
The Golden Eagles had complete control of the match and dominated in the top five singles matches.
Garcia Briseno came off the loss to the ranked Stephenson and took her singles match at the No. 1 spot, 6-0, 6-1, from Femke de Boer of UAB. Charron, also coming off a loss to a ranked opponent, won her match at No. 2, 6-3, 6-1, over Annemieke Elsholz.
Smith faced some challenge in her first set at the No. 3 spot, winning 7-5, but secured the win by winning the second set easily, 6-2. In No. 4 singles Espinosa also found success, defeating Julia von Samson, 6-3, 6-2. Senior Eva Trujillo-Herrera, who has been out with a back injury, came back to play with a win. The senior defeated Nadia Dellarciprete, 6-3, 6-0.
The Blazers grabbed their only point in the No. 6 spot, where Dabrowski fell, 6-2, 6-2, to Samrin Tanzeem. Since the match had already been decided, doubles were not played.
"This was a good Marquette team," UAB head coach Mert Ertunga said in a press release. "It's a shame that this is how the regular season had to end. We'd been playing well lately. We'll get ready for the conference championships."
The win closed out the Golden Eagles' regular season and now they will travel to Louisville for the Conference USA tournament, which begins Thursday. The Golden Eagles are seeded sixth in the tournament and will take on No. 12 seed Southern Miss at noon Thursday.