2008 Woodie Awards
Tennis teams stumble to start the season
Stefan Hunt
Issue date: 2/2/06 Section: Sports
The Chattanooga men's and women's tennis teams started spring season last Saturday with both squads dropping decisions to ranked opponents.
The men's team traveled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to take on 34th ranked Middle Tennessee State and was shut out by the Blue Raiders, 7-0.
MTSU dominated UTC from the start by winning all three doubles matches for the doubles point to start off.
In singles action, Chattanooga's Mark Flynn fell to 98th-ranked Marco Born in three sets at No. 1. Flynn, a junior from Harare, Zimbabwe, took the first set 6-4, but Born showed his resilience by taking the next two sets 6-1, 6-3, to net the win.
Chattanooga's Ryan Fitzgerald, a sophomore from Auckland, New Zealand, fell to Rishan Kuruppu 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2.
Sophomores Artyom Vlasenko (No. 3), Badr Bouabdellah (No. 4), Razvan Axente (No. 5) and Michael Hangstefer (No. 6), all fell in their singles matches to close out the scoring for the Blue Raiders.
The women did not fare much better than the men as they took on Southeastern Conference member Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.
The Lady Rebels, ranked 36th nationally, took an early 1-0 lead by sweeping all three doubles matches.
Ole Miss quickly flexed its muscles as the Lady Rebels lost only three total games in the three matches, en route to a 6-1 victory over UTC.
Chattanooga's No. 1 singles player Anastasia Zhukova did pick up the Lady Mocs only point on the afternoon with a 7-6, 6-4 straight-set victory over Virginia Tomatis.
Zhukova, a junior from Moscow, Russia, picked up where she left off last season with her impressive play.
The rest of the women were not a fortunate as the rest of the team fell in straight-sets to their opponents.
Lindsey Ballard had her troubles in No. 2 action with Nika Koukhartchouk. The Lilburn, Ga. sophomore was easily defeated 6-1, 6-1.
Maureen Parris (No. 3), Talita Bragato (No. 4), Bonnie Adams (No. 5) and Emily Harpe (No. 6) were the other players defeated in singles play.
Both teams will try to net their first team victories of the season respectively, as the men are back in action on Feb. 3 at Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Ky., and the women will travel to MTSU on Feb. 8.
The men's team traveled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to take on 34th ranked Middle Tennessee State and was shut out by the Blue Raiders, 7-0.
MTSU dominated UTC from the start by winning all three doubles matches for the doubles point to start off.
In singles action, Chattanooga's Mark Flynn fell to 98th-ranked Marco Born in three sets at No. 1. Flynn, a junior from Harare, Zimbabwe, took the first set 6-4, but Born showed his resilience by taking the next two sets 6-1, 6-3, to net the win.
Chattanooga's Ryan Fitzgerald, a sophomore from Auckland, New Zealand, fell to Rishan Kuruppu 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2.
Sophomores Artyom Vlasenko (No. 3), Badr Bouabdellah (No. 4), Razvan Axente (No. 5) and Michael Hangstefer (No. 6), all fell in their singles matches to close out the scoring for the Blue Raiders.
The women did not fare much better than the men as they took on Southeastern Conference member Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.
The Lady Rebels, ranked 36th nationally, took an early 1-0 lead by sweeping all three doubles matches.
Ole Miss quickly flexed its muscles as the Lady Rebels lost only three total games in the three matches, en route to a 6-1 victory over UTC.
Chattanooga's No. 1 singles player Anastasia Zhukova did pick up the Lady Mocs only point on the afternoon with a 7-6, 6-4 straight-set victory over Virginia Tomatis.
Zhukova, a junior from Moscow, Russia, picked up where she left off last season with her impressive play.
The rest of the women were not a fortunate as the rest of the team fell in straight-sets to their opponents.
Lindsey Ballard had her troubles in No. 2 action with Nika Koukhartchouk. The Lilburn, Ga. sophomore was easily defeated 6-1, 6-1.
Maureen Parris (No. 3), Talita Bragato (No. 4), Bonnie Adams (No. 5) and Emily Harpe (No. 6) were the other players defeated in singles play.
Both teams will try to net their first team victories of the season respectively, as the men are back in action on Feb. 3 at Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Ky., and the women will travel to MTSU on Feb. 8.
