Marquette’s tennis team traveled to Tampa, Fla., for the women’s Big East Championship, while the men had their Big East Championship in South Bend, Ind. The men went 1-2 for a fourth place finish, while the women went 2-2 in the tournament en route to a sixth place finish.
Tournament play started for the women with a clean sweep of Cincinnati in the opening round. The doubles pair of Ana Pimienta and Erin Gebes won 8-2, and closely behind them was Ali Dawson and Aina Hernandez Soler with an 8-3 victory to give Marquette the doubles point. Singles play started with Gebes and her 6-2, 6-3 finish. Hernandez Soler continued the Golden Eagles’ winning streak with a 6-2, 6-4 victory, and Vanessa Foltinger completed the sweep with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Marquette never lost a set against the Bearcats.
Marquette advanced and battled with top-ranked Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish returned the favor, sweeping the Golden Eagles. Both doubles pairs lost 8-1, while Pimienta was the only Golden Eagles to win a set. She defeated Sanders in the No. 1 spot 6-2 in the second set but dropped the first set 6-2 and the final set 3-6.
Because of its loss to Notre Dame, Marquette went into the bottom half of the consolation bracket and faced No. 6 Rutgers. The Golden Eagles played their third straight 4-0 match, defeating the Scarlet Knights. Rocio Diaz and Aleeza Kanner started off doubles play with a dominating 8-0 victory, and Pimienta and Gebes won the doubles point with an 8-3 victory. In singles play, Diaz again won quickly with a 6-0, 6-2 victory and was closely followed by Aina Hernandez Soler, who was 6-2, 6-1. Laia Hernandez Soler won the closely contested first set 7-5, but held on to the second to win 6-3 and complete the sweep.
In its final match of the tournament, Marquette lost to Syracuse 4-3. Marquette won the doubles point handedly, with an 8-2 victory by Pimienta and Gebes, and an 8-1 victory by Diaz and Kanner. Singles play was not as strong, as Marquette was only able to win two matches, both of them being two set victories. Marquette had three three-set matches and lost all of them.
The men’s team started its Big East Championship against Georgetown, and, like the women’s team, won with a sweep. In doubles play, Gleb Skylr and James Stark won the first doubles set 8-5, while Cameron Tehrani and Logan Collins dropped their set. Dan Mamalat and Vukasin Teofanovic managed to get Marquette the doubles point with an 8-3 victory. Mamalat started off the dominating singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 1. Teofanovic followed suit with a 6-3, 6-3 victory, and Collins closed out the match with a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
Marquette faced No. 1 Notre Dame in the next round and fell to the Fighting Irish 4-1. Tehrani secured Marquette’s lone win with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the No. 3 spot. Tehrani and Collins came close to getting Marquette the doubles point but lost 7-9.
In the final match of the tournament, Marquette faced off against South Florida and was one point away from the best finish in program history. After seven matches, the Golden Eagles lost 4-3 and finished the tournament in 4th. Doubles play started with the No. 1 and No. 2 spots trading 8-2 wins, which meant that it came down to the No. 3 spot. Skylr and Stark battled it out and eventually gave Marquette the doubles point with a 9-8 win.
Tehrani started singles play off with a 3-6, 3-6 loss in the No. 4 spot, tying the score at 1. South Florida would add two more points with victories at the No. 1 and No. 5 spot, putting the Bulls within one point. However, Javier Varela Hernani started the rally with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory. Teofanovic tied the match at 3 with another three set victory, winning 7-6, 4-6, 6-4. The match came down to the No. 3 spot between Collins and Federico Sabogal. Collins jumped out to an early 6-1 victory in the first set, but Sabogal rallied, taking the second set 7-5 and secured the victory for South Florida with a 7-5 victory in the third set.
