SEATTLE – The No. 34 Washington Huskies women’s tennis team (7-3) welcomed Seattle University to Nordstrom Tennis Center Wednesday night, winning the match 7-0 to improve to 7-3 on the season.
Freshman Catherine Gagnon made her Husky appearance in both doubles and singles, winning the first doubles match of the evening with partner Melissa Sakar, 6-4 on court 3.
The remaining two doubles courts went down to the wire, with the No. 34-ranked pair Astrid Olsen and Alexia Jacobs’ match abandoned at 6-all thanks to a win on court 2. Erika Matsuda and Sarah-Maude Fortin earned their seventh doubles victory of the season to clinch the doubles point for the Dawgs, winning the match 7-6 (7-2).
No. 118 Sakar finished first on both the doubles and singles courts, not giving up one point in singles to Seattle’s Quintana on court 4, 6-0, 6-0.
For Sakar, tonight’s win kickstarted the momentum the team needed to head into conference play and the rest of the season.
“It’s all about momentum,” Sakar said. “I think matches like these allow us to work on specific plays and strengths and weaknesses that we’ve been trying to hone in on in practice so that they’re nice and sharp for the big leagues – the Pac-12 and Big Ten matches.”
Matsuda only gave up a point in each set to her Seattle No. 1 opponent, winning the match 6-1, 6-1. Fortin shortly after collected the fourth win and secured the match for the Huskies, defeating the Redhawks’ Nokolova, 6-4, 6-1.
After clinching the win, the action played on as it came down to the freshmen at the end to lock in all seven points for Washington.
“I think it helps for everyone to be able to play the full match, even after clinching,” Fortin said. “It feels good for me to complete and win a match. It definitely gives me confidence with Pac-12 season coming up really soon.”
After dropping a first set 4-6, Jacobs secured a 6-2 second set win to push the match to a tiebreak, which she won 10-6.
Gagnon, in her first singles action as a Husky, had the pressure on as she was the last to pull out a grueling win on court 6 in two sets, 6-4, 7-5.
The Huskies improve to 11-0 against Seattle U – ten of those 11 coming in 7-0 sweeping fashion.
Washington is home for two more matches this weekend at the NTC – hosting Portland Friday night at 5 p.m. and No. 75 San Diego State on Sunday at noon.
HEAD COACH ROBIN STEPHENSON THOUGHTS
Overall thoughts…
“I thought we played really well….
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